Liver Cancer in Texas
An Emerging Public Health Crisis
CPRIT RESPONDS
- Through its Academic Research, Product Development Research and Prevention programs, CPRIT has invested tens of millions of dollars in addressing Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC), also known as liver cancer.
- CPRIT is investing $13 million on a new statewide Collaborative Action Program. The initiative is supporting a Collaborative Action Center that promotes interactions, data sharing, best practices and the development transformative initiatives to prevent liver cancer. It is also supporting 4 investigator-initiated awards to research the increased incidence, disparities and risk factors of HCC and to develop better early detection strategies.
Texas Hepatocellular Cancer Consortium
The Texas Hepatocellular Cancer Consortium (THCCC), the forerunner of the Liver Cancer CAP, was a statewide multi-investigator research collaboration between all four Texas NCI-designated cancer centers. Funded by a CPRIT Multi-Investigator Research Award in 2015, the THCCC helped form the foundation from which the Liver CAP is being built. Watch these videos to learn more about the THCCC’s important work.
Collaborative Action Program for Liver Cancer
CPRIT is investing up to $13 million to establish the state’s first “Collaborative Action Program for Liver Cancer” (CAP).
A cornerstone of the program is the CPRIT-funded Texas Collaborative Center for Hepatocellular Cancer headed up by Dr. Hashem El-Serag of Baylor College of Medicine. The purpose of the Center is to promote interactions and enable data sharing among Texas’s liver cancer researchers, encourage best practices for HCC prevention and early detection, and challenge content experts, health providers, and policy makers to develop transformative initiatives to prevent liver cancer.
Investigator-Initiated Research Awards
Jessica Hwang, MD Anderson
The proposed work has two overall goals: (1) to identify the best way to screen patients in primary care clinics for these risk factors for fibrosis or cirrhosis and (2) to manage risk factors to decrease the risk of worsening fibrosis; $2,456,676
Fasiha Kanwal, M.D., Baylor College of Medicine
Cohort of 6,000 patients with cirrhosis; Baylor College of Medicine, Houston VA, UT Southwestern, Parkland Health System; $2,434,495.
Aaron Thrift, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine
1,500 patients with liver cancer; 8 academic and community practices in Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, El Paso; $2,473,314
Amit Singal, M.D., Ph.D., UT Southwestern
Cohort of 3,000 patients with cirrhosis; UT Southwestern, Parkland Hospital, Baylor Scott & White Dallas, Baylor College of Medicine; $2,499,995.
CPRIT and Liver Cancer
The CAP initiative builds upon tens of millions of dollars in grants addressing HCC that CPRIT has awarded since 2010. In addition to 18 CPRIT grants that have provided HCC prevention services to rural and urban areas across the state, CPRIT has funded research projects at Texas companies and institutions exploring the causes and developing treatments for HCC.
Texas has the highest incidence rate of liver cancer among all states. Texans of Hispanic ethnicity living along the US-Mexico border have more than twice the incidence rate of liver cancer, also known as hepatocellular cancer (HCC), than non-Hispanic whites.
Texas Hepatocellular Cancer Consortium
The Texas Hepatocellular Cancer Consortium (THCCC), the forerunner of the Liver Cancer CAP, was a statewide multi-investigator research collaboration between all four Texas NCI-designated cancer centers. Funded by a CPRIT Multi-Investigator Research Award in 2015, the THCCC helped form the foundation from which the Liver CAP is being built. Watch these videos to learn more about the THCCC’s important work.
Collaborative Action Program for Liver Cancer
CPRIT is investing up to $13 million to establish the state’s first “Collaborative Action Program for Liver Cancer” (CAP).
A cornerstone of the program is the CPRIT-funded Texas Collaborative Center for Hepatocellular Cancer headed up by Dr. Hashem El-Serag of Baylor College of Medicine. The purpose of the Center is to promote interactions and enable data sharing among Texas’s liver cancer researchers, encourage best practices for HCC prevention and early detection, and challenge content experts, health providers, and policy makers to develop transformative initiatives to prevent liver cancer.
Investigator-Initiated Research Awards
Jessica Hwang, MD Anderson
The proposed work has two overall goals: (1) to identify the best way to screen patients in primary care clinics for these risk factors for fibrosis or cirrhosis and (2) to manage risk factors to decrease the risk of worsening fibrosis; $2,456,676
Fasiha Kanwal, M.D., Baylor College of Medicine
Cohort of 6,000 patients with cirrhosis; Baylor College of Medicine, Houston VA, UT Southwestern, Parkland Health System; $2,434,495.
Aaron Thrift, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine
1,500 patients with liver cancer; 8 academic and community practices in Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, El Paso; $2,473,314
Amit Singal, M.D., Ph.D., UT Southwestern
Cohort of 3,000 patients with cirrhosis; UT Southwestern, Parkland Hospital, Baylor Scott & White Dallas, Baylor College of Medicine; $2,499,995.
CPRIT and Liver Cancer
The CAP initiative builds upon tens of millions of dollars in grants addressing HCC that CPRIT has awarded since 2010. In addition to 18 CPRIT grants that have provided HCC prevention services to rural and urban areas across the state, CPRIT has funded research projects at Texas companies and institutions exploring the causes and developing treatments for HCC.
Texas has the highest incidence rate of liver cancer among all states. Texans of Hispanic ethnicity living along the US-Mexico border have more than twice the incidence rate of liver cancer, also known as hepatocellular cancer (HCC), than non-Hispanic whites.