Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( 🔒 ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Need Help

Assessment of sound waves from liver vessels via artificial intelligence to detect liver cancer

Award Number: R01CA305903
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/18/2026
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2031

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Assessment of sound waves from liver vessels via artificial intelligence to detect liver cancer - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Hepatitis B and C are the most common causes of HCC worldwide. The majority of deaths related to HCC occur in resource-limited settings such as South America where viral hepatitis is frequent. HCC mortality occurs primarily due to late detection, which precludes potentially curative interventions. Currently, individuals with liver disease are advised to undergo liver ultrasonography every 6 months with the goal of “visually” identifying a tumor small enough that might be amenable to cure. This visual screening approach is not optimal as ultrasound is operator dependent. Moreover, the sensitivity of ultrasound in screening for early HCC is approximately 50%, which is far from optimal. Therefore, there is a need to find easy-to-apply HCC screening methods which are effective, low-cost, scalable to a population, and require no advanced expertise. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely studied in its potential to diagnose cancer, usually attempting to enhance the detection accuracy of a mass that is already detectable by the human eye. The liver is mainly vascularized by the portal vein. As a primary liver cancer (HCC) develops small hepatic arteries grow within the tumor, providing arterial blood flow. Thus, the normal liver received blood from the portal vein while liver cancer (HCC) does so from the hepatic artery, effectively dividing liver and tumor into two vascular systems and changing blood flow of the main liver vessels. These changes are not perceptible to the human eye. We hypothesize that assessment of sound waves of the main liver vessels through Doppler ultrasonography, which can be detected with mobile-phone ultrasonography, and analyzed via AI will detect changes that can differentiate livers with HCC from those with no HCC. Our preliminary data show that a simple Doppler ultrasound assessment of the portal vein with our AI reading can detect the presence of HCC with a 90% sensitivity – an almost 2-fold improvement over ultrasound alone. Our aims are to #1 assess the role of Doppler ultrasonography sound waves analyzed via AI in differentiating livers with cancer versus controls, refining the algorithm in our 6000 ultrasound database; #2 determine the efficacy of Doppler ultrasonography in detecting HCC in resource-limited settings in a separate validation cohort, training and supervising local staff in Porto Alegre, Brazil to evaluate the algorithm in an existing 2000 ultrasound database and; #3 prospectively validate the real-life role of mobile-phone Doppler ultrasound analyzed via AI in screening for HCC in resource-limited settings, through our ongoing ESCALON HCC clinics in Brazil and Ecuador. If successful, our project has the potential to revolutionize the way we detect liver cancer. Moreover, this methodology could eventually be modified and applied to the screening of other cancers around the globe.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $459,873 )
2026	2026	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA	2221 UNIVERSITY AVE SE STE 100	MINNEAPOLIS	MN	55414	HENNEPIN	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	000	1	9/17/2026	NEW	$441,138
2026	2026	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA	2221 UNIVERSITY AVE SE STE 100	MINNEAPOLIS	MN	55414	HENNEPIN	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	001	1	9/19/2026	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$18,735
														Subtotal = $459,873

Grand Total All Awards = $459,873

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Assessment of sound waves from liver vessels via artificial intelligence to detect liver cancer

Award Number: R01CA305903

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/18/2026

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2031

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer