# Liquid biopsy and radiomics for liver cancer surveillance

> **NIH NIH U01** · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI · 2024 · $633,414

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fastest growing cause of cancer death in the United States. While
prevention efforts are paramount, most patients succumb to advanced HCC disease. Thus, enrollment of at-
risk patients (e.g., cirrhosis of any etiology) in early detection programs is recommended in clinical practice
guidelines. Longstanding challenges to improving early-stage HCC detection are suboptimal performance of
the recommended surveillance tools [i.e., abdominal ultrasound and serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)] and the
low implementation rate of surveillance programs (as low as 25% in the United States). Various studies have
tried to utilize tumor nucleic acids released to the bloodstream (i.e., “liquid biopsy”) as novel early HCC
detection tools, but its role in this clinical setting is largely unexplored. Up to 18% of patients with cirrhosis have
indeterminate nodules detected during surveillance. In these patients, imaging is inconclusive, and patients
require either a biopsy of the suspicious nodule and/or close imaging follow-up.
Our project is designed to overcome these problems by using new blood-based liquid biopsy biomarkers and
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based radiomics. We have assembled a multi-institutional Translational
Research Center including leading academic centers in NYC (Mount Sinai, Columbia, Cornell, and Montefiore).
We plan to collect blood, clinical and imaging data from a multiracial cohort of 2,560 patients (early HCC cases
and controls at high risk). In Aim 1, we will determine the clinical role of new liquid biopsy technologies (i.e.,
cell-free DNA fragment analysis and a 3-small RNA signatures from extracellular vesicles in plasma) as a
novel surveillance approach in HCC. In Aim 2, we will integrate MRI-based radiomics models with our liquid
biopsy technologies to better characterize indeterminate nodules in cirrhosis. Our project is timely and uniquely
poised to respond to the imperative of developing noninvasive biomarkers of early HCC detection.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10931762
- **Project number:** 5U01CA283931-02
- **Recipient organization:** ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI
- **Principal Investigator:** Bachir Taouli
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $633,414
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-19 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10931762

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10931762, Liquid biopsy and radiomics for liver cancer surveillance (5U01CA283931-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10931762. Licensed CC0.

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