Description

Liver cancer is the sixth most prevalent cancer and the third most common cause of cancer death in the world. Studies have demonstrated disparities in access to cancer care and outcomes for minority populations, including Latino patients. In San Diego County, liver cancer is an overrepresented malignancy, with mortality rates two-fold higher in Hispanic patients versus non-Hispanic white patients. In our lab, we are developing and refining a three-dimensional model, known as organoids, of the most common type of liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). These patient-derived organoids are generated from human liver cancer resection and biopsy specimens. This was accomplished by establishing a pipeline in the electronic medical record (EMR) to identify patients who would be potential candidates for tissue donation via the biorepository while ensuring that Latino patients were enhanced in this cohort. Two tissue samples were collected to harvest into organoid cultures and to propagate for drug treatments in vitro to gather data for analysis. We are eager for the future workflow in the EMR that will allow us to identify all patients undergoing liver tumor biopsies at UCSD. For the upcoming academic year, our goal is to increase organoid specimens, while also looking for differences in molecular profiling and responses to different therapies in the Latino and non-Latino HCC populations. Research reported in this abstract was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers: U54CA132384 & U54CA132379. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.