Hepatica: Quantifying liver health in surgical candidates for liver malignancies

This project aims to improve the surgical care of patients with primary and secondary liver cancer. It will do this by developing a new product that uses medical imaging to measure the health of a patient’s liver, helping doctors personalise their treatment plans to individual patients. Liver surgery is the treatment of choice for curing cancer in the liver with on-going advances making curative treatment is available to more patients. However, it is difficult to decide how best to treat patients with the ideal combination of surgery, chemotherapy or localised non-surgical treatments. The greater the extent of liver surgery, the greater the risk of complications, which can include death, particularly in patients with unhealthy livers. Surgeons consider the volume of liver that would remain after surgery, but there is a clear need to also consider the health of this liver to reduce complications. Perspectum Diagnostics span out of the University of Oxford to commercialise novel MRI technology for diagnosing liver disease. Its first product was successful in bringing this technology to the clinic worldwide. In this project, Perspectum will join with the University of Edinburgh and North Hampshire Hospital, both internationally-recognised pioneers in the field of liver surgery, to address this important clinical need with a new product 'Hepatica' aiming to improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs.