More Research Needed for Patients With Liver Tumors

Amaia Lujambio Goizueta, PhD, an assistant professor of Oncological Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses the challenges and strategies for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Oncologists make sure to study their patients as much as they can and use strategies such as liquid biopsies which can detect mutations from tumor cells within an individuals blood. Basic and translational research also can help oncologists come up with the best therapy options for each genetic alteration as these implementations are key to providing patients with the best treatments.

Still, more research is needed in the liver cancer field, especially due to the fact that patients who undergo procedures are at an added risk because of their health. Studies focusing on the genetic makeup of individualized tumors would help researchers further understand how to test patients with HCC.

Transcription:

0:08 | Ideally, we would like to study the genetic makeup of the tumors of every patient and how they respond to each therapy that patient is receiving, so that we have a more complete picture. This is all very challenging because of this fact.

0:33 | There are other strategies that people are developing such as liquid biopsies, which basically means that you can detect the mutations from the tumor cells in the blood of the patient. It is much safer and less traumatic than getting a biopsy and it may offer a similar level of information in terms of choosing the best therapy. Whenever possible, we need to study as much as we can, every single aspect of the tumors. If that's not possible, then implementing liquid biopsies could be a great strategy as well. Then we need to combine basic and translational research, so that we come up with the best therapy options for each genetic alteration or each mutation.