Shedding more light on the role of Midkine in hepatocellular carcinoma: New perspectives on diagnosis and therapy

One of the most common malignant tumors is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Progression of HCC mainly results from highly complex molecular and pathological pathways. Midkine (MDK) is a growth factor that impacts viability, migration, and other cell activities. Since MDK has been involved in the inflammatory responses, it has been claimed that MDK has a crucial role in HCC. MDK acts as an anti-apoptotic factor, which mediates tumor cell viability. In addition, MDK blocks anoikis to promote metastasis. There is also evidence that MDK is involved in angiogenesis. It has been shown that the application of anti-MDK approaches might be promising in the treatment of HCC. Besides, due to the elevated expression in HCC, MDK has been proposed as a biomarker in the prognosis and diagnosis of HCC. In this review, we will discuss the role of MDK in HCC. It is hoped that the development of new strategies concerning MDK-based therapies will be promising in HCC management.