Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC has been selected to join an effort among select centers in the United States and Canada to collect and study information necessary to understand the possible causes and treatment of a destructive liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).
The Studies of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, or STOPSC, is a multi-center research effort initiated, funded and organized by The Musette and Allen Morgan Jr. Foundation. PSC is a destructive liver disease of unknown origin that occurs in both males and females and in children and adults. About one person in every 100,000 will get the disease, and currently there is no proven medical treatment for PSC.
Researchers across the country will establish a database and specimen storehouse in an effort to make the information available to other qualified researchers so future studies can be conducted. The major goal of this study is to help develop better ways to detect the disease, find out how effective current treatments are, and conduct more research studies in the future.