Betulinic acid induces apoptosis of gallbladder cancer cells via repressing SCD1.

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the most common and aggressive malignancy of the biliary tract. Betulinic acid (BetA) has been reported to have anti-inflammatory and antitumor effects; however, the effect of BetA on GBC is still unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of BetA on five GBC cell lines and found that BetA significantly inhibited the proliferation of NOZ cells but had little inhibitory effect on other GBC cells.

Better surgical treatment method for hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein tumor thrombus.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) is a disease that is not uncommon, but the treatments vary drastically between Eastern and Western countries. In Europe and America, the first line of treatment is systemic therapy such as sorafenib and the surgical treatment is not a recommend option. While an increasing number of studies from China and Japan have suggested that surgical treatment results in better outcomes when compared to transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE), sorafenib, or other nonsurgical treatments, and two classification systems, Japanese Vp classification and Chinese Cheng's classification, were very useful to guide the surgical treatment.