The Bili Project Foundation

The Bili Project Foundation’s mission is to reduce the incidence and improve the outcome of cancers of the liver, gallbladder or bile ducts (hepatobiliary cancers) . We promote research to identify early signs and symptoms as well as treatment options for this silent, fast acting group of cancers. The Bili Project Foundation was founded by Sue Acquisto, the wife of Vince Acquisto, and his business partner Joy Stephenson after Vince was diagnosed and later passed from bile duct cancer. Bile duct cancer and other biliary system cancers are among the most difficult to detect. If screening or testing for risk factors or silent symptoms of this type of cancer was available for Vince, perhaps he would have had a chance for successful treatment at an early stage. Inspired by Vince’s passion for education, Sue and Joy partnered with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) medical research team and other institutions to assess how better to stop this quick and silent killer. The Bili Project aims to create a bank of Hepatobiliary tumor specimens at UCSF to advance research on how to better detect and treat the complex family of cancers affecting the Hepatobiliary system, including cholangiocarcinoma, gallbladder cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).