Blood Protein Levels Could Predict Liver Cancer Risk Years in Advance

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Certain blood proteins detectable years before diagnosis could potentially serve as biomarkers for predicting liver cancer, according to a new study. This discovery could offer new hope for a cancer often diagnosed at a late stage when treatment options are typically limited.

“ Liver cancer rates are rapidly increasing, and liver cancer has a high mortality rate,” Xinyuan Zhang, postdoctoral research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the study’s lead author, said in a press release. “But if we can diagnose it early, therapeutic interventions can be potentially curative.”

Early Detection Key to Improving Survival Rates

Approximately 36,000 Americans are diagnosed with liver cancer annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The disease has a high mortality rate, claiming the lives of 19,000 men and 9,000 women each year.

Liver cancer incidence rate has tripled and death rates have more than doubled since the 1980s, according to the American Cancer Society.

Symptoms of liver cancer in its early stages may not be noticeable or apparent, according to the CDC. Once diagnosed, the cancer is typically advanced, making treatment more challenging. The 5-year relative survival rate when the cancer has metastasized (spread to other parts of the body) is only 4 percent. However, if the cancer is localized at the time of diagnosis, the 5-year relative survival rate increases to 37 percent.

“We need to have a way to detect this form of cancer early enough to intervene with surgery or liver transplantation to treat the disease before it becomes metastatic,” Ms. Zhang said.

Four Proteins May Forecast Liver Cancer

The research team, comprising investigators from Mass General Brigham, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Yale University, sought a solution in blood proteins.

They used proteomics, a method to profile proteins, to create a model that could predict which proteins in the blood likely are present in the early stages of liver cancer patients. This enabled them to simultaneously screen over 1,300 proteins, according to the study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

“It’s always been challenging to identify highly specific disease biomarkers in the blood using traditional tools,” Towia Libermann, associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a co-senior author of the study, said in a press release. “But this new technology allows us to detect a broad and dynamic range of both high and low abundant proteins.”

The research team used the technology known as SomaScan to scan blood samples obtained from people an average of 12 years before their liver cancer diagnosis. The aim was to pinpoint protein biomarker signals that could predict the development of liver cancer long before clinical symptoms appear.

After analyzing the blood samples, the researchers cross-referenced the findings with the patients’ medical records to confirm whether those individuals eventually developed liver cancer.

The researchers identified 56 plasma proteins with very high levels in people with liver cancer. For screening process, the team narrowed the list down to four proteins— chitinase-3-like protein 1, growth/differentiation factor 15, interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein, and E-selectin—to create a predictive model. The model demonstrated greater accuracy in predicting liver cancer than other traditional risk factors. The accuracy rate was over 85 percent.

However, the research team cautioned that the biomarker screening might not be a panacea. Additional research involving more diverse and high-risk patients is needed, Ms. Zhang said.