Research Overview

Liver cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers and claims the lives of 1,645 people worldwide each day. Many are Asians with chronic hepatitis B. Early diagnosis is the best way to improve one's chances of surviving liver cancer, but the current screening blood test can miss 50 percent of the cancers. In fact, there is no effective chemotherapy to treat those who are diagnosed in the later stages of liver cancer. Although research and early detection has led to significant improvement in the prognosis of many cancers, liver cancer—which largely affects the Asian and African populations—has received little federal research funding. 

The Asian Liver Center's comprehensive liver cancer research program is committed to finding a cure for liver cancer through novel approaches toward increasing the efficacy of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of liver cancer. The Asian Liver Center spearheaded studies that led to the publication in 2002-03 of the first major genomic analysis of liver and stomach cancers. These important studies have provided us with a rich foundation of information that will guide future research.

Publications By Year

Sukumaran, S., Tan, M., Ben-Uliel, S. F., Zhang, H., De Zotti, M., Chua, M. S., So, S. K., & Qvit, N. (2023). Rational design, synthesis and structural characterization of peptides and peptidomimetics to target Hsp90/Cdc37 interaction for treating hepatocellular carcinoma. Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, 21, 3159-3172.

Ahmad F, Ma L, Wei W, Liu Y, Hakim I, Daugherty A, Mujahid S, Radin AA, Chua MS, So S. Identification and validation of microtubule depolymerizing agent, CYT997, as a potential drug candidate for hepatocellular carcinoma. Liver Int. 2023 Oct 13. doi: 10.1111/liv.15756. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37833852.