Complete

A new ground-breaking approach to bile duct cancer and liver cancer

Cancer types:

Liver cancer

Project period:

Research institute:

Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie vzw

Award amount:

£213,592

Location:

Belgium

Researcher Professor Georg Halder

Professor Halder and his colleagues want to better understand a novel treatment approach called “regenerative cancer therapy”. They hope that this recently discovered approach could one day be used in different types of liver cancer, including rarer bile duct cancer. 

Hope for the future

Rates of liver cancer, including bile duct cancer, have been soaring since the 1970's, but treatment remains a challenge. Because of this, there is an urgent need for new therapeutic approaches. One such exciting new therapeutic approach was recently discovered in Professor Halder’s lab.

The science

Professor Halder and his team found that stimulating natural liver generation in normal liver cells around liver tumours caused the tumour to shrink dramatically. This remarkable discovery identifies a completely new strategy to fight cancer that they call “Regenerative Cancer Therapy”. 

Most liver cancers occur in livers that are already damaged by the accumulation of fat or alcohol. This is why Professor Halder is now studying the effects of this new therapy on different human cancer cells in diseased livers.  He and his team expect their project to uncover more information about this new bold therapeutic approach, hopefully paving the way for its use in patients in the future. 

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