{"id":8785,"date":"2026-05-15T13:56:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/?p=8785"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:58:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:58:40","slug":"new-nih-grant-award-advancing-early-detection-of-liver-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/2026\/05\/new-nih-grant-award-advancing-early-detection-of-liver-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"New NIH Grant Award: Advancing Early Detection of Liver Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-end=\"403\" data-start=\"68\">We are pleased to announce that Louise Henderson and\u00a0Andrew Moon, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at UNC, have been awarded a new NIH\/NCI-funded grant (R21CA313041).\u00a0Lauren Burke\u00a0serves as a co-investigator on this project.<\/p>\n<p data-end=\"551\" data-start=\"405\"><strong data-end=\"423\" data-start=\"405\">Project Title:<\/strong>\u00a0<em data-end=\"497\" data-start=\"424\">Early Detection of Liver Cancer Among Patients with Cirrhosis and MASLD<\/em><br \/>\n<strong data-end=\"519\" data-start=\"500\">Project Period:<\/strong>\u00a0May 15, 2026 \u2013 April 30, 2028<\/p>\n<p data-end=\"955\" data-start=\"553\">Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer, is projected to become the third leading cause of cancer-related death by 2035. While routine surveillance\u2014typically abdominal ultrasound every six months for high-risk patients\u2014has been shown to improve early detection and survival, national data reveal that only about 25% of patients with cirrhosis receive appropriate screening.<\/p>\n<p data-end=\"1332\" data-start=\"957\">This project addresses critical gaps in HCC surveillance, particularly in the context of the rising prevalence of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), which is expanding the population at risk. As liver disease patterns evolve, there is an urgent need to better understand how to identify at-risk individuals and optimize surveillance strategies.<\/p>\n<p data-end=\"1354\" data-start=\"1334\">The study aims to:<\/p>\n<ul data-end=\"1568\" data-start=\"1355\">\n<li data-end=\"1448\" data-section-id=\"vjqpok\" data-start=\"1355\">Develop and implement the infrastructure for a population-based HCC surveillance registry<\/li>\n<li data-end=\"1568\" data-section-id=\"oydmax\" data-start=\"1449\">Evaluate methods to accurately identify patients with MASLD using ICD codes, laboratory data, and radiology reports<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-end=\"1950\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\" data-start=\"1570\">This innovative work responds to a shifting clinical landscape and will lay the groundwork for future efforts to improve risk stratification, surveillance practices, and ultimately patient outcomes. By establishing a scalable registry and identifying gaps in care, the research team aims to inform targeted interventions that enhance early detection and treatment of liver cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are pleased to announce that Louise Henderson and\u00a0Andrew Moon, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at UNC, have been awarded a new NIH\/NCI-funded grant (R21CA313041).\u00a0Lauren Burke\u00a0serves as a co-investigator on this project. Project Title:\u00a0Early Detection of Liver Cancer Among Patients with Cirrhosis and MASLD Project Period:\u00a0May 15, 2026 \u2013 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/2026\/05\/new-nih-grant-award-advancing-early-detection-of-liver-cancer\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about New NIH Grant Award: Advancing Early Detection of Liver Cancer\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83776,"featured_media":7346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1384\/2024\/07\/henderson-published-in-jama-internal-medicine-image2-scaled.jpeg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1384\/2024\/07\/henderson-published-in-jama-internal-medicine-image2-300x200.jpeg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1384\/2024\/07\/henderson-published-in-jama-internal-medicine-image2-768x512.jpeg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1384\/2024\/07\/henderson-published-in-jama-internal-medicine-image2-1024x683.jpeg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1384\/2024\/07\/henderson-published-in-jama-internal-medicine-image2-150x150.jpeg","featured_image_alt":"Louise Henderson headshot, white female standing in front of glass windows, shoulder-length brown hair, blue eyes, smiling at the camera in a dark gray jacket and blouse.","category_details":[{"name":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/category\/uncategorized\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83776"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8786,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8785\/revisions\/8786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radiology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}