Impending HCC diagnosis in patients with cirrhosis after HCV cure features a natural killer cell signature.
Sophie Anna EngelskircherPo-Chun ChenBenedikt StrunzCarlos OltmannsTijana RisticSolomon Owusu SekyereAnke R M KraftMarkus CornbergThomas WirthBernd HeinrichNiklas K BjörkströmHeiner WedemeyerNorman WollerPublished in: Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) (2024)
We show that HCV-related HCC development has profound effects on the imprint of NK cells. Persistent co-expression of TIM-3hi and CD38 + on NK cells is an early indicator for HCV-related HCC development. We propose that the profiling of NK cells may be a rapid and valuable tool to assess the risk of HCC development in a timely manner in patients with cirrhosis after HCV cure.