Diagnosing liver cancer before it is too late

Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide, and one of the few whose incidence is still rising. Patients at risk -those with cirrhosis or chronic viral hepatitis- are known in advance, yet most are only diagnosed at an advanced stage.

Current surveillance relies mostly on ultrasound alone, sometimes being combined with AFP. This approach misses a large share of early tumours and performs worst in the patients hardest to image. Detection at a curable stage is the single largest influence on survival, and it is a measurement problem.

Levels Diagnostics performed three retrospective, case-control studies in patients both with MASLD- and hepatitis-driven hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, the predominant type of liver cancer), with actual high-risk surveillance patients as controls. Utilizing large-scale proteomics, we identified novel biomarkers that can accurately detect HCC in its earliest stages, enabling curative treatments.

Currently, we are working towards translating our results into cost-efficient, easy-to-operate assays for implementation into the clinic and simplifying the biannual screening of the surveillance population.