Nearly 80 per cent of liver cancer related to aristolochic acid

Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School, Johns Hopkins Medicine Singapore and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan have revealed a decisive link between Aristolochic Acids (AA), a natural product of some plants used in herbal remedies, and liver cancers. Using mutational signature analysis, the researchers analysed the genes of 98 patients with liver cancer and found that 76 of them had tumours that were exposed to AA.

• Lianhe Zaobao, 24 October 2017, zbNOW, p2