β-Catenin mutations as determinants of hepatoblastoma phenotypes in mice.

Hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most common pediatric liver cancer. Although long-term survival of HB is generally favorable, it depends on clinical stage, tumor histology, and a variety of biochemical and molecular features. HB appears almost exclusively before the age of 3 years, is represented by seven histological subtypes, and is usually associated with highly heterogeneous somatic mutations in the catenin β1 () gene, which encodes β-catenin, a Wnt ligand-responsive transcriptional co-factor.