Rabbiaatul Addawiyah bt Imawana

• MBBS (NUMed Malaysia)
• Exploring the Potential of Prognostic and Predictive Biomarkers in Circulating Tumour Cells in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

When it comes to liver cancer, there’s one burning question that is yet to be answered:  What is the key driver mutation or the first defect point in cells to become cancerous for liver cancer? Unlike other types of cancer like breast cancer that has a specific key driver mutation, the exact point in liver cancer is still blurry. This is mainly because every liver cancer has many different mutations, making it difficult to find a common point in them. Hence, we are still unable to have one single universal biomarker that can detect every liver cancer. This project studied a panel of liver cancer biomarkers and their prevalent in liver cancer patients blood samples. The impacts on knowing the most prevalent biomarker enable early detection for liver cancer or targeting this biomarker for drug development. Furthermore, perhaps someday leads to the discovery of the universal biomarker for liver cancer?

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr Helen Reeves