Chulabhorn Research Institute had been collaborating with Chulabhorn hospital, the National Cancer Institute (Thailand), Khon Kaen University, and Chiang Mai University with the aim to alleviate the suffer of liver cancer patients and the tumor biobank for liver cancer was set up to provide resource for future investigations. Since 2008, CRI, participating Thai institutions and the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, USA) has established the Thailand Initiative on Genomics and Expression Research for Liver Cancer (TIGER-LC) consortium. The goal is to perform a comprehensive large scale genome-wide and candidate association study to identify and validate genome factors and tumor biology that affect liver cancer risk progression and response to therapy. The MOU signing ceremony of TIGER-LC between CRI and collaborators The study aims to include 6,000 volunteers which are 1,000 HCC cases; 2,000 CCA cases, 2,000 patients with chronic liver diseases arising from hepatitis B and or hepatitis C infection, alcoholic cirr hosis, and liver fluke carriers which are considered high risk non-carrier cases, as well as a sample of 1,000 healthy population-based controls recruited at our collaborating institutions and Chulabhorn hospital. Information from questionnaire, clinical data and specimens such as blood, urine, saliva and tissue were collected with the same efficiency and standard and delivered to CRI. The biobank and database system are set up at CRI to accommodate a...

The main focus of the research is to understand the relationship among genetics, environmental exposures, and the etiology of primary liver cancer through the establishment of a large clinical cohort consisting of well-defined case-control and case-case individuals. Recognizing the molecular features and genetic mutations of liver cancer from Thai patients could lead to more effective treatment options for this population. These findings may point researchers toward new strategies for drug development. Through integrative analysis approaches, the research also aims to identify clinically-relevant biomarkers that may be useful for risk assessment, cancer early detection, tumor subtype classification, prediction of tumor relapses and responses to therapy which could potentially lead to more effective treatment of liver cancers. Using biospecimens collected in the biorepository, the researchers studied multi-omics data arising from tissue of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) patients from Thailand. Genome sequences, gene activity and metabolic profiles data of 398 tissue samples were analyzed and the researchers were able to identify molecular subtypes of either type of liver cancer which are closely resembles each other’s. These common subtypes of HCC and CCA showed similar gene expression pattern, tumor biology and clinical outcome. The follow up study focused on metabolic profile of Thai HCC patients, the researchers discovered that certain metabolic genes, tissue metabolites and serum metabolites can independently stratify HCC patients...

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is malignancy arising from cholangiocyte in the biliary tract and is the second most common type of primary liver cancer. This type of cancer is associated with poor prognosis and limited treatment options. The major risk factors of this cancer associate with chronic inflammation, cellular injury in the bile duct, and partial obstruction of bile flow caused by various conditions such as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), hepatolithiasis and infestation by liver fluke (Opisthorchis viverrini) (Kubo, Kinoshita, Hirohashi, & Hamba, 1995; Sirica, 2005; Watanapa & Watanapa, 2002). Recent studies attempt to investigate the molecular pathogenesis of this disease, including etiology and molecular alterations. Genetics and epigenetics changes in cholangiocarcinoma have been identified from a number of studies. Alterations of several cellular functions including self-sufficiency and proliferation, apoptosis resistance, escape from senescence, and tumor invasiveness and metastasis, are proposed to contribute the onset of cholangiocarcinoma (Lazaridis & Gores, 2005). The uncontrolled proliferation of cells due to harboring of genes mutations causes cancer development. Cell cycle progression is a highly regulated process that involves several steps including DNA replication and cell mitosis. At present, understanding the mechanisms involved in cholangiocarcinoma cells development and finding the indicators of the response to cancer treatment is beneficial to the treatment option of this cancer. Recent research conducted by the Thailand Initiative in Genomics and...