1). What are the potential clinical implications of these findings? Cirrhosis is a major precursor phenotype to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and telomerase activity is typically reactivated during liver carcinogenesis. Are patients with these TERT and TERC mutations more or less check details likely to develop HCC

after developing cirrhosis? The prevalence of these TERT and TERC mutations is relatively low, representing 7.5% of patients in the Calado et al. study and 3.1% of patients in the Hartmann et al. study. Although their prevalence is low and they, therefore, may not be a major contributing factor to cirrhosis at the population level, the identification of these mutations raises important questions about our clinical approach to patients with cirrhosis and our conceptual view CH5424802 of risk of cancer. For example, are there predisposing mutations for cirrhosis in other genes involved in the maintenance

of telomere function, such as the genes for the other telosome components, including POT1 (protection of telomeres 1 homolog), ACD/TPP1 (adrenocortical dysplasia homolog), TINF2/TIN2 (TERF1-interacting nuclear factor 2), TERF1/TRF1 (telomeric repeat binding factor [NDMA-interacting]1), TERF2/TRF2, and TERF2IP/RAP1 (telomeric repeat binging factor 2, interacting protein), and interacting proteins such as DKC1, NOLA1, NOLA2, and NOLA3? Should assays of telomerase gene mutations be used as a stratification factor for selecting patients for treatment of their liver disease, given the presumption that they will be more likely to develop progressive fibrosis? Or, should these assays be used for stratifying patients in clinical trials of antifibrotic selleck agents to reduce unrecognized bias? It has been recognized for a number of years that there is a familial predisposition to HCC; could this be related to germline transmission of telomerase gene mutations? There is also the clinical

observation that a subgroup of patients with cirrhosis will develop HCC relatively early in the natural history of cirrhosis, when they still have Child-Pugh class A liver dysfunction, whereas others will develop HCC at more advanced stages of liver dysfunction. Intriguingly, many individuals progress through the natural history to advanced end-stage liver disease without developing HCC; therefore, are they in some way protected from or less susceptible to carcinogenesis? The findings of the studies by Calado et al. and Hartmann et al. are important because they provide a new perspective on these questions and raise further questions that should be elucidated through future research.