DELPHI

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Deep Liver Phenotyping & Immunology Study

• IRAS ID

  264839

• Contact name

  Rory Peters

• Contact email

  rory.peters@ndm.ox.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Oxford / Clinical Trials and Research Governance

• Duration of Study in the UK

  20 years, 0 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma are the two most common causes of primary liver cancer and HCC is the second highest cause of cancer death worldwide. It is known that most of these cancers occur in patients who already have a liver condition. Despite close monitoring of many patients who have liver disease with regular ultrasound scans, HCC and cholangiocarcinoma are often discovered at a late stage. This is because they rarely cause symptoms until they have reached an advanced stage. Early identification of these cancers would enable more patients to have curative treatments such as surgery or liver transplantation.
  We want to collect blood and urine samples as well as small samples of cells directly from the liver. In some cases this will be done using a technique called liver fine needle aspiration. This technique is low risk and has been successfully used in other studies. We will compare samples from patients with cancer to those of patients with other diseases of the liver who are at risk of developing cancer in the future.
  We aim to detect changes in the liver, blood, urine or bile of patients who have liver conditions that could tell us their risk of a future cancer. These changes could be in the types of white blood cells found within the liver, or, they may be in products secreted by liver cells. In the latter case the liver cells may release small pieces of their DNA that could be detected in the blood. When liver cells are dysfunctional, they may also change the types of metabolic products that they produce, and we may be able to detect these changes in the urine or bile.

• REC name

  South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  20/SC/0021

• Date of REC Opinion

  14 Feb 2020

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion