There is a disproportionately high number of liver cancer patients in the Mexican American population in south Texas due to a high prevalence of fatty liver diseases, which affect 1 in 5 adults in Texas and 1 in 3 of its Hispanic population. Individuals with fatty liver are at risk for progressing to liver cancer through an intermediary step of liver fibrosis. The existence of a large liver cancer at-risk population in Texas provides an opportunity to develop and implement strategies to prevent liver cancer that will have major health impacts. There is an unmet need for new screening tools that are easily applicable in the clinic and capable of identifying individuals with fatty liver diseas...

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There is a disproportionately high number of liver cancer patients in the Mexican American population in south Texas due to a high prevalence of fatty liver diseases, which affect 1 in 5 adults in Texas and 1 in 3 of its Hispanic population. Individuals with fatty liver are at risk for progressing to liver cancer through an intermediary step of liver fibrosis. The existence of a large liver cancer at-risk population in Texas provides an opportunity to develop and implement strategies to prevent liver cancer that will have major health impacts. There is an unmet need for new screening tools that are easily applicable in the clinic and capable of identifying individuals with fatty liver diseases at high risk of developing liver cancer before they actually do so. To date, advanced liver fibrosis remains the single best predictor of liver cancer outcome in patients with fatty liver. DNA methylation is a chemical modification of DNA in response to environmental changes. Our objective is to identify and validate DNA methylation markers in blood samples that can be used to stage fibrosis or predict its progression in fatty livers as a manageable prelude to liver cancer. Our first aim is to identify and validate new DNA modification markers that are detectable in blood and diagnostic of the fibrosis stage of fatty liver. Our second aim is to identify and validate new DNA modification markers detectable in blood and prognostic of the risk of fatty liver to advance to severe fibrosis. The outcome will have a major impact on the health of individuals with fatty liver by providing a non-invasive way to determine their current liver fibrosis conditions and future risk of developing severe fibrosis, enabling early preventive and surveillance measures. Because liver cancer is highly fatal and often untreatable, the outcome could potentially reverse the rising trajectory of liver cancer cases and deaths, thereby mitigating a health care disparity issue in Texas and beyond.

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