Immunotherapy and Radioembolisation for Metastatic Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2026-06-30
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most intractable primary malignancies in the
hepatobiliary and pancreatic tract with a poor overall survival worldwide. Unfortunately, the
vast majority of hepatocellular carcinoma patients suffer from advanced unresectable or
metastatic disease at diagnosis. Currently targeted therapy alone, or in combination with
anti-vascular endothelial growth factor antagonist, is the standard first-line treatment for
metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma.
On the other hand, there is growing evidence suggesting that radiation therapy (external or
internal) with or without immune checkpoint inhibitors can produce or even augment abscopal
effect in which the tumours away from the radiation field also show significant tumour
shrinkage. The underlying mechanism of eliciting abscopal effect includes the increased
antigen presentation by the myeloid cells within the tumour stroma leading to enhanced tumour
cell killing. Previous case reports showed that radiation therapy alone can induce abscopal
effect in mice and human models. However, a robust and concrete evidence of abscopal effect
with combinational immune checkpoint inhibitors and radioembolisation or external radiation
therapy in hepatocellular carcinoma is still lacking.
This study investigates the efficacy and safety of immune checkpoint inhibitors and
radioembolisation as first-line treatment for previously untreated metastatic hepatocellular
carcinoma.