Joint lab to improve treatment of liver cancer opened in Biopolis

The PuRPOSE Programme launched its joint laboratory at Biopolis on 30 April 2018 to improve the treatment of liver cancer. The programme is a collaboration between A*STAR’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB)- A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS)- the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS)- the National University of Singapore (NUS)- and Samsung Medical Center from South Korea.

The collaboration is the world’s first clinically reliable and robust patient-specific diagnostic and predictive platform for liver cancer- and brings together leading experts in translational research from Singapore and South Korea.

Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide- and the second most common cause of cancer death . It is also the fourth most common cancer among men in Singapore . If untreated- most patients do not survive beyond 6 months. There are currently few efficacious drugs for treating liver cancer and this poses a huge unmet clinical need.

The new platform will allow researchers and pharmaceutical companies to work together to understand the disease better- in the hope of accelerating drug development and expanding treatment options for patients.

Read more below:

• The Straits Times: Lab to boost treatment of liver cancer launched
• Lianhe Zaobao: Singapore partners South Korea in liver cancer precision medicine research
• Channel NewsAsia: Faster- targeted therapy for liver cancer patients