Commentary with regard to the role of alcohol and cofactors in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary cancer of the liver. It is clear that chronic alcohol abuse is associated with the development of HCC, but the mechanistic role of alcohol in HCC is not well studied. The research that is presented in the Brandon-Warner and colleagues' (2012) article approaches an important outcome of chronic alcohol abuse. The most important study results that are presented in their article show convincing data that chronic alcohol consumption by male mice resulted in a robust response in the liver to a carcinogen. It was shown that female mice responded significantly less to alcohol and the carcinogen than the male animals. The overall research data covered a number of aspects of the liver disease associated with chronic alcohol consumption and the presence of a carcinogen that will support a great deal of further research to develop mechanistic data.