Proteome of rare liver cancer sheds new light on basic biology

Doctors have long puzzled over a mystery at the heart of fibrolamellar carcinoma, a rare and deadly liver cancer that mainly affects children and young adults. Like more common liver cancers, and liver failure itself, fibrolamellar can end in an ammonia spike that leads to coma and death. Curiously, however, the conventional methods for treating ammonia spikes in other liver diseases are somehow rendered ineffective in fibrolamellar.