UW-Madison researchers reported isolating a gene that may help to diagnose liver disease during early onset before most damage is done.
Liver disease is typically not caught until symptoms have already arisen. Since liver disease has a survival rate of 6 percent, a test is needed to detect the disease before the liver is destroyed. Carrie Graveel, a UW graduate student, led the project. Graveel presented the results of the project Monday at a meeting of cancer experts in San Francisco.
The project’s goal was to identify genes that predispose people to having liver cancer. The researchers identified and cloned for research two genes that seem to correlate with liver disease. The first, named CRG-L1, was found only in liver tumors. The second was named CRG-L2 and was found in colon, liver and possibly other cancers.
