Liver cancer is often lethal in humans because it is diagnosed in late stages.
"Hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer, remains the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide due to a lack of biomarkers for early detection and rapid fatality shortly after diagnosis," said Ying Fu, of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in the US.
"In this work, we demonstrate that a damaged lesion on a DNA base (guanine) is correlated with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma in two mouse models," Fu said.
"Furthermore, polyphenon E, a formulation of green tea extract containing antioxidant catechins (plant metabolites) showed the most potent effect to suppress the lesion.
"More importantly, 86 per cent of the mice on the polyphenon E diet appeared to have complete protection from tumour development," Fu said.
The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Philadelphia.