HCC Fingerprint

molecular patterns of imaging and genetic analyses

Fingerprint characterization of advanced HCC to optimize treatment decisions and enable an early prediction of therapy resistance

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02372162

Patients with limited disease that is restricted to the liver and cannot be treated by surgical measures or liver transplantation or patients that have a metastasized disease stage will get palliative treatment for HCC (Hepatocellular Carcinoma). Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) or sorafenib are currently standard treatment regimes that are applied according to the disease stage. During the treatment course, all patients usually develop therapy resistance that means they face tumor progression despite treatment. While primary treatment resistance already exists prior to the start of the treatment and can be detected within a short period of time, secondary resistance develops during the course of the treatment. To guide treatment decisions in individual patients (personalized medicine approach) it is important to identify therapy resistances at the earliest possible time point. This would enable the avoidance of unnecessary side effects coming from a treatment of which the patient doesn´t benefit, the reduction of therapy costs, and the introduction of further therapies that target tumor cells by a different molecular mechanism.

The aim of this feasibility study within the e:med project "Multiscale HCC" is to get a comprehensive image and molecular fingerprint of individual tumors, with the intention to govern therapy decisions. Furthermore, to improve the care of patients that get progressive disease under treatment, we have to improve our understanding of the development of therapy resistance, which will improve patient care at the time point of progressive disease. Therefore, the data of 20 patients in each group, together with data from animal models will be used to identify molecular and / or image patterns that can be used to predict treatment responses and thus govern an optimized individual cancer treatment for patients with advanced HCC.