DeCure's autonomous Cancer AI scientist is researching a drug-repurposing hypothesis for Hepatoid Adenocarcinoma — screening already-approved drugs against its 1-gene Open Targets disease module to publish open-access research. Research is fast; the path to publication is funded in milestone stages.
Disease moduleHepatoid Adenocarcinoma maps to a 1-gene Open Targets module — the target space DeCure's AI scientist screens approved drugs against.
DeCure.ai methodSignature reversal (LINCS) plus network proximity (STRING) rank already-approved drugs likely to perturb this module — the same engine that produces DeCure.ai's repurposing hypotheses.
Repurposing thesisScreening approved medicines against this disease module, then publishing the evidence for the strongest candidate. Known pharmacology and human exposure data make the first question sharper — they do not establish safety or efficacy in a new indication.
Research record
01
ResearchComing soon
Candidate research + dossier — target rationale, drug-repurposing thesis and evidence pack.proof: Published dossier + on-chain hash
02
ValidationComing soon
In-vitro biological validation at a contract research org (CRO).proof: CRO contract + in-vitro report
03
Peer review & paperComing soon
Peer-reviewed paper published open-access (preprint + journal).proof: DOI + open-access link + on-chain hash
Current lead
No approved-drug candidate for hepatoid adenocarcinoma is corroborated in the literature DeepSearch retrieved. Some conditions are managed with non-pharmacological care — a device, surgery or physical therapy — rather than a medicine; that may be the case here, or the literature we found may simply be too sparse yet to support a drug-repurposing angle.
Molecular view
epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) — EGFR is one of the genes genetically linked to this disease in Open Targets — shown as context, not as a drug target we're pursuing: no approved-drug candidate for this disease is yet corroborated in the literature we found.
Loading structure…
helix sheet apo structuredrag to rotate · scroll to zoom
RCSB Protein Data Bank · entry 7SYD · 3.1 Å · ligand none (apo structure). Experimental structure, not a prediction.
What the evidence adds up to
Hepatoid adenocarcinoma is a rare extrahepatic adenocarcinoma with glandular and hepatocyte differentiation, described first in 1985. It can occur in many organs, most commonly the stomach, and is extremely rare in the lung. The tumour is characterised by early metastatic spread, vascular invasion, and unexplained elevation of serum alpha-fetoprotein. Most patients are diagnosed in advanced stages with extensive metastasis to liver or lymph nodes. Prognosis is consistently described as poor, unfavourable, and dismal across all reports. Only 51 cases of pulmonary hepatoid adenocarcinoma had been described in the literature as of 2022, with only one reported in Russia. A retrospective study of two cases of pulmonary hepatoid adenocarcinoma confirmed by histology and immunohistochemistry was presented in 2022, but no treatment outcomes or survival data were given for those patients.
Surgery is described as the most effective tool within a multimodality concept, but the treatment strategy is not clearly defined due to the extreme rarity of the tumour. A 2019 case report describes a colon hepatoid adenocarcinoma misdiagnosed as primary liver cancer, and a 2007 case report describes a gastric hepatoid adenocarcinoma without involving liver parenchyma. In both reports, the patients were diagnosed in advanced stages. No response rates, survival times, or sample sizes beyond single cases or the two-case series are provided in these abstracts. No drug therapy is mentioned in any of the abstracts.
What is still missing is any prospective clinical trial data, any systematic evaluation of chemotherapy or targeted agents, and any biomarker-driven patient stratification. The literature consists entirely of case reports and small retrospective series. Without a coordinated registry or funding for multi-centre studies, the evidence base for any treatment remains anecdotal.
Evidence
Retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works and resolved on OpenAlex — ranked by citations, including the results that did not work.
Clinical Pathology · 2022 · 7 citations · open access
Hepatoid Adenocarcinoma of the Lung: <i>A Rare Form of Lung Cancer</i>
AbstractHepatoid adenocarcinoma is a rare type of extrahepatic adenocarcinoma with glandular and hepatocyte differenciation. The tumor can occur in many organs, generally in the stomach, the location of the lung being extremely rare. Despite poor prognosis and few effective treatment options, a timely and accurate histopathological diagnosis is key to optimal clinical management for long-term survival. Given the few reports published to characterized hepatoid adenocarcinoma, the emergence of any new case will contribute to improve understanding of the disease. Very few reports have been published to characterize hepatoid adenocarcinoma cytologically or even histologically. The aim of this work is to focus on the anatomoclinical characteristics of this rare entity. We present a retrospective study of 2 cases of pulmonary hepatoid adenocarcinoma confirmed by histological and immunohistochemical study.
Siberian Journal of Oncology · 2022 · 1 citations · open access
Rare case of primary hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the lung
AbstractHepatoid adenocarcinoma is a rare type of adenocarcinoma with hepatocellular differention, which is characterized by early metastatic spread and poor prognosis. The treatment strategy in not clearly defined due to an extreme rarity of the tumor. Surgery is the most effective tool as a part of multimodality concept. So far, only 51 cases have been described in the literature, and only one in Russia. Clinical case description. We report a case of metastatic hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the lung in a 54-year-old male patient. The difficulties in morphologic differential diagnosis between adenocarcinoma of the lung and primary liver cancer were described. The strategy for managing patients with hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the lung was demonstrated. Conclusion. Hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the lung is a rare tumor with unfavourable outcome.
Ewha Medical Journal · 2007 · 0 citations · open access
A Case of Hepatoid Adenocarcinoma without Involving Liver Parenchyme
AbstractHepatoid adenocarcinoma was described by Ishikura in 1985 for the first time. It is a very rare variant of adenocarcinoma characterized by morphological and functional features of hepatocyte differentiation. It is most commonly presented as gastric adenocarcinoma with otherwise unexplained elevation of serum alpha-fetoprotein level. Most of the patients with gastric hepatoid adenocarcinoma were diagnosed in advanced stages having vascular invasion and/or extensive metastasis in liver or lymph nodes. Accordingly, the prognosis of hepatoid adenocarcinoma is dismal. We experienced a typical case of gastric hepatoid adenocarcinoma and described the clinical features.
Colon hepatic adenocarcinoma misdiagnosed as primary liver cancer: case report and literature review
AbstractHepatoid adenocarcinoma (HAC) is a rare malignant tumor in digestive duct. This paper reports a case of a patient with elevated AFP and diagnosed as colon hepatoid adenocarcinoma. With this rare case of HAC, we futher discuss the incidence characteristics, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis and prognosis in this article.
Key words:
Surgical procedures, operative; Liver neoplasms; Carcinoma, hepatocellular; Hepatoid adenocarcinoma
Disease module: DeepOracle (Open Targets). Structures: RDKit from PubChem SMILES. Literature: retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works (targeted per-candidate search), resolved on OpenAlex.
DeCure is a research and publication project, not medical advice and not a treatment. "DeCure for X" describes a research goal, not a claim that a cure exists. Backing a cure is a contribution to fund the research — it is not an investment, and confers no yield, royalty, equity or IP ownership. Papers are published open-access by the DeCure.ai DAO.
