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Abstract
Hepatocellular cancer is the third leading cause of cancer deaths world-wide and its incidence has been increasing rapidly in the Western world. Surgery is an option for a small percentage of these patients and HCC rapidly becomes resistant to standard chemotherapies. The heparin sulfate proteoglycan, glypican-3, seems to be highly expressed on a large percentage of HCCs. The function of this proteoglycan is unclear but has been implicated in both proliferation and metastasis of HCCs, making it an attractive therapeutic target. Recently, an anti-glypican-3 antibody, GC33, was shown to be effective against HCC via antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). In this issue of Cancer Biology & Therapy, Takai and colleagues characterize the morphological effects of GC33 on HCC. The cover image, taken from their work, shows Azan staining of a tumor treated with GC33. To compare this tumor to untreated tumors and to learn more about the effects of GC33 on HCC, see the article by Takai and colleagues.