Liver cancer patients may soon be able to check if their disease has returned with a simple blood test that detects tumour-specific DNA changes in the bloodstream, as part of a new Curtin University-led research project.
Led by Dr Rodrigo Carlessi from the Curtin Medical Research Institute (Curtin MRI), the LIVER-Trace project was awarded almost $500,000 in funding from the Innovation Seed Fund 2024-25 program, supported by the Western Australian Government’s Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund.
Liver cancer is one of the major causes of cancer-related deaths each year and has a high risk of returning in patients even after effective treatments.
Post-treatment liver cancer monitoring relies on imaging techniques such as MRI and CT scans, which can be expensive, may miss small tumours and are often inaccessible for patients in remote areas.
Dr Carlessi said the test represents a precision health innovation, using cutting-edge technologies to improve disease monitoring so it’s more effective and accessible.
“Our study will evaluate the ability of this test to detect liver cancer recurrence more accurately than current methods, while also being more readily available to people living in rural and regional areas,” Dr Carlessi said.
“If successful, this technology will allow health professionals to detect recurring cancer earlier, which will see earlier interventions resulting in better outcomes for patients and higher survival rates.”
Developed as a Liver Cancer Collaborative project, the test only requires a small volume of plasma, making it suitable for frequent use even in remote, resource-limited settings.
“The simplicity and scalability of this innovation makes it highly suitable for addressing similar healthcare challenges at a national and international level,” Dr Carlessi said.
“It offers a promising solution for liver cancer patients globally, particularly those in areas where healthcare resources are scarce. “The next step is to assess the test’s effectiveness in a larger group of patients. This funding will allow us to demonstrate LIVER-Trace’s real-world clinical value and readiness for further scale-up over the next 24 months.”
The research team has completed a pilot study, in which LIVER-Trace detected residual circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) after surgery, even in cases where MRI results indicated no remaining disease and successfully detected recurrence in cases with and without radiological confirmation.
Curtin University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research John Curtin Distinguished Professor Melinda Fitzgerald congratulated the team on receiving important funding to improve research into recurring liver cancer.
“Liver cancer remains a leading cause of death around the world and projects such as LIVER-Trace puts Curtin at the forefront of the global fight against the disease,” Professor Fitzgerald said.