Federal Grant Award Summary

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received a $399,829 Project Grant from the National Cancer Institute under the Cancer Cause and Prevention Research program (CFDA 93.393) for the period May 15, 2026 through April 30, 2028. This award supports the development of a population-based hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance registry to improve early detection and risk stratification among patients with cirrhosis and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). The project will establish feasibility for creating infrastructure to identify at-risk patients and implement targeted interventions for HCC surveillance, addressing the critical gap where only 25% of eligible patients currently receive adequate surveillance despite its association with earlier detection, increased curative treatment receipt, and improved survival outcomes.

The primary deliverables under this award include the development and implementation of tools and systems necessary to establish the population-based HCC surveillance registry, with specific focus on assessing the capacity to identify at-risk patients with MASLD. Given the rapidly increasing prevalence of MASLD and emerging risk-stratification tools, this registry will provide critical infrastructure to facilitate implementation of targeted interventions and improve healthcare delivery outcomes for the growing population at risk for HCC development, supporting the long-term goal of enhancing surveillance practices and clinical decision-making in liver cancer prevention and early detection.