When someone gets cancer, it’s best to find it early. Catching cancer fast can help a patient have a better chance of getting better.
A team of researchers at MUSC has found a new way to spot a deadly type of liver cancer sooner. The team was led by Anand Mehta and Shaaron Ochoa-Rios.
They published their findings in the Cancer Research Communications journal.
They found a special sign, or “biomarker,” that points to a deadly liver cancer called intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA).
Understanding iCCA
iCCA is a subtype of the second most common type of liver cancer. It is aggressive and deadly. If found late, only about 8% of patients survive after five years.
But if found early and removed with surgery, the five-year survival rate increases to 50%.
“The earlier we find cancer, the longer patients tend to live,” said Mehta.
But finding iCCA is hard. The main symptoms like yellow skin, itchy skin, feeling tired, and belly pain can be signs of other liver diseases too.
It’s hard to tell if these symptoms mean a person has liver cancer or another liver issue.
Why Finding iCCA is Important
The number of people getting liver cancer is probably going to increase. In the past, people with liver cirrhosis were at the highest risk of getting liver cancer.
But now, two other conditions tied to eating too much fat and not exercising are putting more people at risk.
Given these numbers, it’s not possible to test everyone at risk for CCA. And imaging tests, like MRIs or CT scans, take a lot of time.
What is a Biomarker?
A biomarker is a noninvasive measurement that can tell doctors about a patient’s health. This could be anything from a blood pressure reading to the amount of a substance present in a person’s blood.
The current biomarker used to detect CCA, CA 19-9, is not very specific. It’s used to diagnose other types of liver conditions and even other cancers.
Because of this, a positive CA 19-9 test doesn’t always mean that a person has iCCA.
A New Biomarker for iCCA
Mehta and Ochoa-Rios have found a biomarker specific to CCA. In samples from patients with CCA, they found changes to a type of sugar called N-glycan.
It is not known why these N-glycan changes occur. But these changes happen in tissue with CCA but not in healthy tissue or tissue with other types of liver cancer.
They also found these N-glycan changes in blood samples. This means that these N-glycan changes can be a biomarker. This new biomarker can allow doctors to detect CCA without the need for an invasive tissue biopsy.
Unlike CA 19-9, this new biomarker can help rule out other diseases.
“This biomarker can tell the difference between a patient who has cancer and a patient who has a very advanced stage of liver disease, like cirrhosis,” Ochoa-Rios said.
“The new N-glycan-based biomarker did much better than the currently used biomarker,” Mehta explained.
What Happens Next?
Because of the way new biomarkers are introduced, it will be some time before this new biomarker is widely used. However, the work done by Mehta and Ochoa-Rios is an important first step in this process.
The team plans to learn more about the N-glycan changes. N-glycans are attached to proteins. It will be important to understand which proteins are connected to N-glycan changes and why.
“We still have a lot to learn, but we’re moving in the right direction. We’re trying to fix problems that doctors face,” said Ochoa-Rios.
“While there’s still much work to be done, this is a good start. We now know what steps to take to find a good biomarker for CCA,” said Mehta.
If you care about liver health, please read studies about a diet that can treat fatty liver disease and obesity, and coffee drinkers may halve their risk of liver cancer.
For more information about liver health, please see recent studies that anti-inflammatory diet could help prevent fatty liver disease, and results showing vitamin D could help prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
The study was published in Cancer Research Communications.
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