Hepatic progenitor cells, senescence and IL-6 as the main players in combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma development

Primary liver cancer (PLC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths and is having an increasing impact on society (https://gco.iarc.fr/). When thinking of liver malignancies, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the pediatric tumor hepatoblastoma, and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) first come to mind. However, a neoplasm exhibiting elements of both HCC and CCA within the same nodule had already been reported in 1903, later being called “mixed” or “combined” hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CCA).