Obesity has been convincingly linked to non-viral/non-alcoholic liver carcinogenesis (HCC) and to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). Both HCC and EAC have five-year survival rates below 50% with little to no advancement in treatment options over the past decade. In obesity-associated HCC and EAC, bile acids and their biology as signaling molecules are emerging as potentially shared mechanistic factors generally in gastrointestinal cancers and in particular in the liver and in the esophagus. Emerging work on the role of bile acid-based therapeutics for the prevention of cancer risk factor intermediates will be presented. This will include status of clinical trials with bile acid based drugs, their molecular targets and novel opportunities for drugs targeting metabolic disturbances in the obese as prevention agents for HCC and EAC.

Citation Format: Patricia A. Thompson. Stemming the rising tide of liver and esophageal cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2013 Oct 27-30; National Harbor, MD. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Can Prev Res 2013;6(11 Suppl): Abstract nr CN04-03.