UTSW named Specialized Program of Research Excellence for liver cancer
$12 million award from National Cancer Institute will advance promising research toward improving patient care
DALLAS – Sept. 17, 2025 – The Liver Tumor Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center has been selected by the National Cancer Institute as a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE). Accompanied by a $12 million grant over five years, the SPORE aims to speed the development of new ways to treat and prevent liver cancer.
“We’re quite honored to be chosen as a liver cancer SPORE. Our selection speaks to the quality of science and the potential for discovery and advances in clinical research and care at UT Southwestern,” said Amit Singal, M.D., M.S., Professor of Internal Medicine and in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health as well as Medical Director of the Liver Tumor Program and Chief of Hepatology at UTSW. Dr. Singal will co-lead the liver cancer SPORE with Yujin Hoshida, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of Liver Tumor Translational Research.
Dr. Singal explained that the SPORE’s overarching goal is to transform innovative scientific discoveries from UTSW into precision interventions that reduce liver cancer incidence and mortality. The effort will have a special focus on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which accounts for over 85% of liver cancer cases across the nation. More than 42,000 new cases of liver cancer, including HCC, are diagnosed every year in the U.S., and more than 30,000 Americans die of liver cancer annually. Cirrhosis from heavy alcohol use, metabolic dysfunction, viral hepatitis, and some genetic variations are key risk factors for HCC and other liver cancers.
These risk factors are particularly common in Texas, which has one of the highest incidences of HCC in the country, Dr. Hoshida said. UTSW joins the Mayo Clinic and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center as liver cancer SPOREs across the nation.
“Our goal is to significantly improve liver cancer survival rates by refining the prevention and treatment of this disease through various new approaches,” he said.
The bulk of the SPORE grant will fund three research projects.
Reducing risk of developing HCC
The first, led by Drs. Singal and Hoshida, will test a promising “chemoprevention” strategy in people considered at high risk of developing HCC due to existing cirrhosis. Previous research in animal models at UTSW showed that a protein known as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) appears to foster cirrhosis-driven HCC development. By suppressing activity of this protein through an EGFR-inhibiting drug called erlotinib, researchers reduced the risk of HCC in these mouse models, a result mirrored in a recent phase one clinical trial in patients with cirrhosis. The UTSW team plans to test this strategy in a larger number of patients in a phase two trial, using a novel biomarker they discovered called a prognostic liver secretome signature as a proxy for HCC risk.
Preventing recurrence of HCC
The second project, led by Hao Zhu, M.D., Professor in Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern and of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, and David Hsieh, M.D., Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, will focus on preventing recurrence of HCC in cirrhosis patients who were previously treated. Tumors regrow within two years in about 50%-70% of these patients because the risk factors that caused the initial disease are still present, Dr. Zhu explained. Having extra chromosomes in liver cells – a condition called polyploidy – has been shown to be protective against developing HCC. Previous research in the Zhu Lab showed that reducing a protein known as anillin can induce polyploidy and reduce development of HCC. The researchers plan to test this anillin-targeting strategy in a phase one clinical trial.
Improving immunotherapy to prevent HCC recurrence
The third project, led by Daolin Tang, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Surgery, and Adam Yopp, M.D., Professor of Surgery and Division Chief of Surgical Oncology and Surgical Director of the Liver Tumor Program, will focus on improving the efficacy of immunotherapy to prevent HCC recurrence. Although immunotherapy drugs – which harness the immune system to fight cancer – have shown promise in treating advanced stage HCC, their benefit in preventing recurrence after HCC tumors are surgically removed has been unclear. To boost their performance, the researchers plan to test these drugs in combination with a drug known as a telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) inhibitor. This agent has been shown to selectively stop HCC cells from multiplying and kill them while also activating a cancer-fighting subset of immune cells. A planned phase one b trial will test the safety and efficacy of the TERT inhibitor combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients who will undergo surgery to remove HCC tumors.
Additional funding
Along with these projects, the SPORE grant will also fund a Developmental Research Program, which will provide seed funding to launch new high-risk, high-reward projects, and a Career Enhancement Program, which will aid early-career scientists and clinicians interested in translational liver cancer research. In addition, the grant will support three cores: an Administrative and Outreach Core, which will provide essential administrative services for the SPORE; a Biospecimen and Pathology Core, which will house patient-derived tissue and blood samples needed for research; and a Data Science Core, which will provide biostatistical and bioinformatic data analysis support to researchers.
“The successful funding of the liver SPORE is a major accomplishment of the Simmons Cancer Center. It represents an outstanding example of the multidisciplinary and collaborative science destined to have a major impact on the prevention and treatment of this lethal disease in the state of Texas and beyond as well as a testament to UTSW’s commitment for translational research,” said Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D., Director of the Simmons Cancer Center and Associate Dean of Oncology Programs at UT Southwestern.
UTSW is home to two other SPOREs for lung cancer and kidney cancer research.
Dr. Singal is a Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care and holds the Willis C. Maddrey, M.D. Distinguished Chair in Liver Disease. Dr. Hoshida holds the H. Ray and Paula Calvert Chair in Gastroenterology Oncology in Honor of Udit Verma, M.D. Dr. Zhu holds the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Distinguished Chair in Therapeutic Oncology Research and is a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar in Cancer Research. Dr. Yopp holds The Occidental Chemical Chair in Cancer Research. Dr. Arteaga holds the Annette Simmons Distinguished University Chair in Breast Cancer Research.
Drs. Singal, Hoshida, Zhu, Hsieh, Tang, and Yopp are members of Simmons Cancer Center. Dr. Zhu is also co-leader of the Simmons Cancer Center Development and Cancer Research Program.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 24 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 23 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,200 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in more than 80 specialties to more than 140,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.1 million outpatient visits a year.