10015617Developing a KScan diagnostic for patient stratification of first line systemic hepatocellular carcinoma therapiesClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKPrimary liver cancer is the fourth most prevalent cancer globally and the third highest cause of cancer deaths. Rising incidence coupled with an appalling 5-year survival rate of less than 15% is forecast to result in up to 1 million deaths in 2030\. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for 90% of primary liver cancer cases, with around 5,900 new cases diagnosed annually in the UK. Despite the use of very expensive state-of-the-art technology for diagnosis and treatment, the best-available current treatments provide only marginal benefits for approximately 70% of HCC patients. A major underlying issue is the almost complete absence of biomarkers (a means of measuring biological conditions) to effectively match systemic treatments to HCC patients. Our project combines the clinical expertise of King's College Hospital and King's College London (KCH & KCL) with the innovative diagnostic capabilities of Kinomica Ltd. KCH & KCL are front-line liver cancer oncologists, transplant surgeons and pathologists witnessing first-hand how the clinical pathway underserves their patients. Their need has inspired our collaborative project to address this market failure. Kinomica's flagship innovation is the KScan(R) platform, underpinned by proprietary machine learning algorithms, that enables more accurate biomarker diagnostics. This has been demonstrated as being able to outperform state-of-the-art biomarker diagnostics for targeted therapy treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The company is scaling rapidly in preparation for rolling out our transformative diagnostic, and now seeks to expand into new indications where there is crucial need. During this project, together with KCH & KCL, Kinomica will apply KScan(R) to build on the novel liver cancer biomarkers we have already identified through preliminary investigations. We intend to emulate our AML successes to fully develop and validate clinically effective biomarker panels to guide systemic HCC therapies, based on patient outcomes, and commence prototyping a KScan(R) diagnostic steered by indicative health economics, and clinical and patient pathway assessments. This project will cover all necessary research and development prior to clinical trials, which will be conducted post-project. After 2025, we intend to commence deploying an effective diagnostic that improves therapy response by 15%, extending and improving quality of life of tens of thousands of HCC patients, and potentially avoiding over £1Bn that is spent on ineffective treatments globally. The innovation and commitment of the partners will thus be a valuable contribution to UK science and healthcare.