Boosting intracellular sodium selectively kills hepatocarcinoma cells and induces hepatocellular carcinoma tumor shrinkage in mice.

Pharmacological treatments for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have a partial efficacy. Augmented Na content and water retention are observed in human cancers and offer unexplored targets for anticancer therapies. Na levels are evaluated upon treatments with the antibiotic cation ionophore Monensin by fluorimetry, ICP-MS, Na-MRI, NMR relaxometry, confocal or time-lapse analysis related to energy production, water fluxes and cell death, employing both murine and human HCC cell lines, primary murine hepatocytes, or HCC allografts in NSG mice.