National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) has signed two memorandums of understanding on 29 January 2016, one with InvitroCue Pte Ltd (IVQ) and another with both Singapore Clinical Research Institute (SCRI) and IMS Health Asia Pte Ltd (IMS Health), for collaborations on liver cancer research.
 
The collaboration with IVQ, a Singapore-based provider of biomedical quantitative image analytic products and services, is steered towards the research in the development of applications that will improve treatment outcomes in primary liver cancer.
 
NCCS and IVQ will develop the applications for liver related disease by extracting data from patient’s MRI or CT scans for non-invasive quantitative image analysis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC). The data will be used together with genomic data to help clinicians select the most appropriate therapy for an individual patient and improve patient outcomes.
 
Prof Soo Khee Chee, Director of NCCS said, “This collaboration combines advances in image analysis with genomics and clinical expertise in liver cancer to realise the potential of Precision Medicine for patients. This aligns with the mission of NCCS and we look forward to better treatment outcomes in liver cancer patients.”
 
 
(Left to right) Mr Amit Backliwal, Prof Soo Khee Chee and A/Prof Teoh Yee Leong. (Credit: NCCS)
 
In the other collaboration, NCCS, SCRI and IMS Health will develop the first liver cancer registry in Asia. The data from this Registry can help policy-makers and health care professionals formulate strategies to manage liver cancer patients.
 
“HCC is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and the burden of this devastating cancer is expected to increase further in coming years. The collection and analysis of epidemiologic HCC data will play a critical role in guiding future disease prevention strategies and optimizing patient management,” said Associate Prof Teoh Yee Leong, Public Health Physician and CEO of SCRI.

This collaboration is led by Prof Pierce Chow, Senior Consultant Surgeon at NCCS and Chairman of the Physician Network. Prof Chow shared that even though Asia sees 80 percent of the world’s liver cancer patients, there is currently no real-world data on the presentation, clinical trajectory and management of liver cancer in Asia.
 
"Real world data on the presentation, clinical trajectory and management of HCC in the Asia-Pacific must be prospectively collected on the ground if we were to improve public health measures and develop effective public health strategies,” explained Prof Chow.