Research by two Carle Illinois College of Medicine students is poised to advance the study of emerging therapies to fight liver cancer. In separate studies, CI MED students have laid the groundwork for constructing valuable new animal testing models and expanding the treatment options for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a common and aggressive form of cancer that starts in the liver.
In the first study, researchers at CI MED, University of Illinois Chicago, and Sus Clinicals (a company focused on using pigs to test therapeutic interventions) set out to create a novel large animal model that could be used to study and test new ways to treat HCC. One of the challenging aspects of HCC is that this type of liver cancer can present different mutations from one patient to the next. That’s why it is important for the animal model to reflect the wide variety of common mutations found in human HCC.
The team achieved their goal by using CRISPR gene editing tools. “We analyzed RNA extracted from porcine (pig) liver cancer tumors and showed that the genes activated biological pathways that represent typical HCC signaling pathways and liver fibrosis,” CI MED student Vish Vijayakumar said. “This study starts to expand the number of genetic mutations that can be expressed in porcine models of HCC,” he said.
Researchers also verified that their animal model showed an immune response, making it useful in testing treatments that rely on the body’s defenses to fight malignancy. “A hot topic in interventional radiology research is how to optimally combine minimally invasive interventional radiology therapies with immunotherapy,” Vijayakumar said. “We constructed this model that hopefully researchers can use to provide new insights into HCC and better treatment options.”
CI MED student Meridith Kisting contributed to a second study that sheds light on the effects of a promising non-invasive form of ultrasound therapy for treating liver tumors located near the stomach wall. Histotripsy is a non-thermal, focused ultrasound cancer therapy that has been approved by the FDA for treating liver tumors. It selectively targets soft tissues, like tumors, without damaging stiffer tissue, such as bile ducts and large blood vessels. Specialists have avoided using this treatment for tumors along the edge of the left lobe of the liver because the effects of ultrasound waves on the nearby stomach wall were unknown.
Using an animal testing model, Kisting and a research team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that because histotripsy selectively targets soft tissue, the effects on the stomach wall are generally minor. Kisting says histotripsy can also be controlled at the millimeter level, allowing interventional radiologists to confidently use this technology to treat tumors at the edge of the liver. “This work will be helpful in expanding the primary and metastatic liver tumors that can be confidently treated with histotripsy,” Kisting said.
Both Vijayakumar and Kisting were selected to present their research at the national Society of Interventional Radiology conference in Nashville in late March. Vijayakumar will graduate from CI MED in May 2025 and will specialize in diagnostic radiology. Kisting, who is completing her first year at CI MED, will spend her summer at UWM to further her research on histotripsy and other image-guided procedures.
Editor’s note:
The abstract for Vijayakumar’s presentation is available here.
His previous research on liver cancer has been accepted for publication in the journal Genome Biology.
The abstract for Kisting’s research presentation can be found here.