Liver Disease

Storr Liver Unit research programs

Liver cancer is one of the two major causes of death for people with cirrhosis, the other one being liver failure often treated by liver transplantation. The rate of liver cancers in Australia has doubled during the last two decades and is forecast to treble again by the year 2020, largely because of hepatitis C. The Medical Foundation Fellow is examining cellular processes by which liver cancer cells multiply and survive at the expense of normal liver cells.

Fatty liver disorders are by far the commonest form of liver disease. Research at the Storr Liver Unit is directed at correcting early changes in liver disease so as to prevent cirrhosis.

The Storr Liver Unit is also involved with a large Asian Pacific study of hepatitis B treatment. Results of this study have shown that successful antiviral treatment not only reduces liver failure for hepatitis B, it also reduces the instance of liver cancer by 50%. Liver cancer is usually the result of cirrhosis due to hepatitis B or hepatitis C.