O-glycosylation in liver cancer: Clinical associations and potential mechanisms

Liver cancer can be an aggressive disease, and is highly prevalent in Asia and Africa. However, its currently approved therapeutic strategies are far from satisfactory. Recent progress in genomic, proteomic and glycomic profiling technologies have enabled the identification of biomarkers that significantly correlate with clinical outcomes. Many biomarkers are related to O-glycosylation of glycoproteins, which belong to an important but less-explored field of liver cancer biology. Here, we review these clinical studies and discuss potential underlying mechanisms.