How fibrolamellar carcinoma differs from hepatocellular carcinoma in children – Creation of a multi-institutional database including central pathologic review

Timeframe: 2023 – 2025 Goal: Understand the true incidence, accuracy of diagnosis, and optimal treatments for FLC Principal Investigator: Roshni Dasgupta, MD of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Co-investigators: Study overview: In previous work, the Pediatric Surgical Oncology Research Collaborative (PSORC) collected and analyzed detailed records of 262 patients under age 20 diagnosed with …

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Targeting DNAJB1-PRKACA driven signaling dependencies in FLC

Timeframe: 2019 – 2022 Goals: Investigate the potential of AURKA inhibitors for FLC treatment Principal Investigators: John Gordan, MD, PhD (UCSF) and Nabeel Bardeesy, PhD (MGH) Study overview: Even though the DNAJB1-PRKACA gene fusion is sufficient to trigger fibrolamellar liver cancer (FLC), no treatments directed at this target are clinically available. Most FLC patients receive …

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Flipping the switch on PKA: synthetic lethal approaches to block PKA-driven tumor growth in fibrolamellar liver cancer

Timeframe: 2016 – 2019 Goal: Understand growth mechanisms and identify potential therapeutic targets Principal Investigators: John Gordan, MD, PhD (UCSF) and Nabeel Bardeesy, PhD (Mass General Hospital) Study overview: The discovery of a genetic change in the protein kinase A (PKA) gene in nearly all cases of fibrolamellar liver cancer (FLC) creates hope that targeted …

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Pre-clinical studies of the interactions of the immune system with FL-HCC

Timeframe: 2016 – 2019 Goal: Study the interactions between the immune system and FLC in a mouse model Principal Investigator: Kevin Barry, PhD Study overview: Cancer immunotherapies harness the power of the immune system to kill tumors. Checkpoint blockade immunotherapies are an exciting class of cancer immunotherapies that remove the brakes from the immune system …

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