A study looking at changes in the liver caused by cancer (MISSION- liver)

Cancer type:

Cancer spread to the liver

Secondary cancers

Status:

Results

Phase:

Other

This study was for people with cancer that had spread to the liver from another part of the body. It was open to people who were going to the Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.

The study was open for people to join between 2016 and 2021. The team reported the results in 2022.

More about this trial

Cancer can spread to other parts of the body from where it started. One place it can go is the liver. This is called secondary liver cancer.

Doctors use scans such as a CT scan or an MRI scan to see if the cancer has spread to the liver.

A new way of doing an MRI scan can show what is happening in cancer cells. This is called a Hyperpolarised Carbon MRI.

In this study, healthy volunteers and people with secondary liver cancer had a Hyperpolarised Carbon MRI. As part of the Hyperpolarised Carbon MRI scan, they had a substance called pyruvate injected into a vein. This helps to provide doctors with more detailed images of processes in the liver.

The study team then compared their scans. They hoped this will help them to better understand what changes happen in the liver when cancer has spread there.

Summary of results

Six people took part in the study. There were 4 healthy volunteers and 2 people with secondary liver cancer. Everyone was to have the Hyperpolarised Carbon MRI scan.

Two of the healthy volunteers didn’t have the pyruvate injection. This was because a main part of the Hyperpolarised Carbon MRI scan was not working.

The other 2 healthy volunteers did have the pyruvate injection and the scan. The scan took good quality images of their liver.

The 2 people who had secondary liver cancer did have the pyruvate injection and the scan. The images of their liver were of poor quality. This was because there were technical problems.

Conclusion
This study was to confirm the usefulness of the Hyperpolarised Carbon MRI scan for looking at changes in the body due to cancer.

The study team were not able to recruit as many people as planned. So no firm conclusions could be drawn from the results

Since this study, the team have used the Hyperpolarised Carbon MRI scan in another study. This study looked at the changes in the kidney when a person has a type of kidney cancer called renal cell cancer.

We have a plain English summary of this study on our web site.

A study looking at 3 new types of MRI scan to diagnose kidney cancer (IBM Renal)

Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on information from the research team. As far as we are aware, the information they sent us has not been reviewed independently (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) or published in a medical journal yet. The figures we quote above were provided by the research team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.