Overview Clinical Research Studies (DELPHI, SELiNA and Pearl)

DELPHI

The DELPHI study is comparing the characteristics of immune cells found Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC, liver cancer) or other cancer types to cells collected from individuals with no cancer. Cells are collected from cancer/non-cancer tissue using FNA (Fine-needle aspiration) or from blood, urine and bile. The aim of the study is to identify changes to the immune system that may be present in cancer but not in non-cancer patients and therefore may have the potential to either indicate the early development of cancer or could flag that an individual could be at risk of developing cancer.   

SELiNa

The aim of the SELiNa study is to recruit patients with small early liver cancers to 1) evaluate imaging and state-of-the art molecular biomarker tests to detect liver cancer at the earliest stages; 2) characterise the non-cancerous “background” liver to better understand the changes that may lead to cancer transformation; 3) to assess if biomarkers can be used to predict disease progression by clinical follow-up. Blood, Urine and where available biopsy samples will be collected from patients diagnosed with HCC in the presence or absence of cirrhosis in order to identify biomarkers that can be utilised in the early detection of HCC. In addition, a subgroup of patients will also receive Magnetic Resonance (MR) liver Imaging in order to explore the possibility of using MR imaging as a tool for HCC diagnosis.

Pearl

Pearl is a study which will recruit people with liver cirrhosis and follow them over a period of several years. As it is anticipated that a proportion of participants will develop liver cancer whilst enrolled in the study, blood and urine samples as well as imaging data collected at multiple timepoints during the study will be used to verify whether any of the biomarkers and imaging markers identified in the SELiNa study can indeed detect HCC at an early stage.