Texas Hepatocellular Carcinoma Consortium (THCCC)

Hepatocellular cancer is the most common (>95 percent) of primary liver cancers. HCC is also the fastest rising cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, and Texas has the highest death rate from HCC in the nation. The five-year HCC survival remains low (10-15 percent) and most patients get diagnosed at late stages. Texas residents notably Hispanics and African Americans are greatly affected with established HCC risk factors including hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus and alcoholic liver disease. Furthermore, emerging HCC risk factors, specifically the metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), are exceptionally common in Texans.

The Texas Hepatocellular Carcinoma Consortium was established in 2015 to reduce the burden and mortality of hepatocellular cancer (HCC) in Texas. Building on the Quality in the Continuum of Cancer Care framework, our proposed THCCC targets key areas of uncertainty in the prevention and early detection of HCC. The THCCC includes researchers, clinicians, and staff from Baylor College of Medicine, Veterans Affairs, MD Anderson Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Parkland Health Hospital System in Dallas, and UT San Antonio. Our cohort has become the largest ongoing prospective cohort of patients with cirrhosis in the nation.