Scope

The Texas Hepatocellular Carcinoma Consortium (THCCC) was established to reduce the burden and mortality of hepatocellular cancer (HCC) in Texas. The THCCC includes researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, MD Anderson in Houston, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Parkland Health Hospital System in Dallas, and UT San Antonio.

Building on the Quality in the Continuum of Cancer Care framework, our proposed THCCC targets key areas of uncertainty in the prevention and early detection of HCC. Primary prevention and early detection of HCC need to target high-risk individuals. For example, most cases of HCC (90%) arise in the background of cirrhosis, which is the main predisposing condition for HCC.

However, only 2-5% of persons with cirrhosis develop HCC annually. Thus, there is a pressing need to better risk-stratify cirrhosis patients for HCC. Yet, no such tools exist because most prospective studies of patients with cirrhosis fail to examine the full range of demographic, clinical, epidemiological, biochemical, and genetic factors that predict HCC. Our THCCC will fill this need by identifying a set of risk stratification indices for HCC in cirrhosis.

Objectives

The goal of the Texas Hepatocellular Carcinoma Consortium (THCCC) is to reduce the death and suffering related to liver cancer in Texas and the world by conducting cutting edge collaborative research.

A main source of synergy and efficiency in the THCCC is the assembly of the largest prospective cohort study (of patients with cirrhosis) in the U.S. with sufficient power to address immediate questions regarding risk stratification, surveillance uptake, and early detection as well as provide platform for addressing future questions regarding Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) prognosis and treatment. The proposed studies require the accurate, timely and consistent enrollment of a large number of patients in several study sites to answer critical questions in HCC.