ArticleJournal for immunotherapy of cancer2025
Ethanol inhibits the growth and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma by inducing immunogenic cell death.
Article in Journal for immunotherapy of cancer, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- STAT3 inhibition eradicates multiple myeloma stem-like cells and induces immunogenic cell death.Blood science (Baltimore, Md.) · 2026Article
- Alcohol reshapes liver zonal plasticity and immune-metabolic reprogramming in metabolic-syndrome associated hepatocellular carcinoma.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Bibliometric analysis of immunogenic cell death in hepatocellular carcinoma.Discover oncology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundImmunogenic cell death (ICD) can elicit an adaptive immune response with significant antitumor effects. Percutaneous ethanol injection therapy has been applied as tumor ablation for small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, it was not clear whether ethanol can elicit ICD. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of ethanol as an ICD inducer.
methodsHCC cell lines were treated with low-concentration ethanol and ICD markers, such as calreticulin, high-mobility group box 1, and ATP were assayed. The mouse vaccination-rechallenge assay was used to further confirm ethanol as an ICD inducer. Western blot and real-time PCR were used to investigate ICD-related endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and signaling pathways. The genes with differential expression levels between primary and distant tumors were analyzed by nCounter gene expression. Intratumoral injection of ethanol was done to investigate the abscopal effect.
resultsThe low-concentration ethanol could induce ICD in HCC cell lines through unfolded protein responses initiated by ER stress and multiple cell-death pathways. Intratumoral injections of low-concentration ethanol had significantly direct and abscopal antitumor effects in mouse models of both subcutaneous and orthotopic HCC. nCounter gene expression analysis in primary and distant tumors revealed the activation of various immune-response pathways, notably those mediated by CD8 T cells and the interferon pathway. Vaccinating mice with low-concentration ethanol-treated HCC cells successfully inhibited metastasis in both intravenous and intrasplenic metastasis models.
conclusionsOur results suggest that low-concentration ethanol could serve as an inducer of ICD. Low-concentration ethanol could potentially improve therapeutic antitumor immunity by inducing substantial ICD.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.