A survey of liver tumours has highlighted a gene that many such tumours depend on for survival.

Scott Lowe and Scott Powers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and their colleagues searched the genomes of 89 liver tumours and 12 liver-cancer cell lines. They identified 124 genes that were sometimes expressed in excess; overexpression of 18 of these caused liver cells transplanted into mice to become cancerous.

In particular, cells overexpressing the gene FGF19 became dependent on this expression. An antibody that blocks the FGF19 protein inhibited the growth of these cells, suggesting that patients in whom this gene is overexpressed could benefit from therapies that block the protein.

Cancer Cell doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2011.01.040 (2011)