Tissue Analysis After Tumor Ablation for Liver Metastases Leading to Immediate Retreatment

November 2, 2026 updated by: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Clinical Trial Optimizing Tumor Ablation for Liver Metastases: Rapid Tissue Analysis Allowing for Immediate Retreatment; Metabolic Imaging Biomarker Validation; and Predictive Genetic Signatures

This study will see whether collecting and analyzing needle biopsy samples from cancer liver metastases after a tumor ablation procedure will be able to identify cancer cells that are still alive. The results of these biopsies could help determine the next treatment for your cancer, but the biopsies could cause side effects.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
200

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Phase 2
  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.
  • Name: Constantinos Sofocleous, MD, PhD
  • Phone Number: 212-639-3379
  • Email: sofoclec@mskcc.org

Study Contact Backup

  • Name: Efsevia Vakiani, MD,PhD
  • Phone Number: 646-888-3060

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States, 10065
        • Recruiting
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
        • Contact:
          • Efsevia Vakiani, MD,PhD
          • Phone Number: 646-888-3060
        • Contact:
          • Constantinos Sofocleous, MD, PhD
          • Phone Number: 212-639-3379
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Constantinos Sofocleous, MD,PhD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Diagnosis of liver metastases from various primary tumors
  • Confined liver disease or limited extrahepatic disease stable/controlled for at least 4 months (extrahepatic disease amenable to treatment is allowed)
  • Lesions of ≤3 cm in maximum diameter
  • At least one FDG-avid lesion to be treated***
  • INR < 1.5*
  • Platelet count ≥ 50,000

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Age < 18

  • Less than 5 mm distance to a structure (GI or biliary tract), that cannot be protected from ablation injury with technical modifications such as hydro or air dissection

  • INR > 1.5 that cannot be corrected with fresh frozen plasma **

  • Platelet count of <50,000 that cannot be corrected with transfusion

  • More than 3 tumors in the liver

  • More than 5 tumors of extrahepatic disease (including mediastinal nodes and pulmonary nodules, abdominal or other lymph nodes, and bone metastasis)

  • Presence of any peritoneal Carcinomatosis

    • For patients on Coumadin, general clinical guidelines for IR ablation will be followed.

      • For patients with no FDG-PET avid tumors aim 2 of the protocol will not be assessed

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Patients with Liver Metastases

The standard of care tumor ablation procedure, post-ablation biopsies and pre- and post-ablation PET scans. If the PET scan is positive (shows areas of cancer in the treated metastases), study participants will undergo additional needle biopsies of the positive areas on the scan. If the biopsies show areas of cancer cells that are still alive, the participants will be immediately retreated with a second ablation procedure.
Diagnostic test: [18-F]- FDG - PET

Patients will undergo a limited non-contrast CT and first injection PET to localize the lesion

Procedure: Tumor ablation (TA)

Standard ablation with the intent to create a radius of ablation at least 10 mm larger than the largest lesion diameter in order to achieve a minimum of 5 mm ablation margin around the tumor. Any radiographically-identified and biopsy-confirmed residual tumor will be treated on site with immediate ablation. This repeat ablation is not standard of care but will be performed as described for the initial ablation (in the same procedure session) and follow up will be resumed.

Diagnostic test: PET/CT Scan

Eligible patients will undergo PET/CT -guided tumor ablation as per standard IR guidelines. All patients will undergo PET/CT again, within approximately 6 weeks (+/- 2 weeks) of tumor ablation to evaluate for CN in the target tumor(s) or any sign of residual tissue enhancement, representing viable residual tumor and incomplete treatment.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Tumor response
Time Frame: 2 years

will be measured according to RECIST and PERCIST 1.0. The first CT and PET scan taken after ablation will be considered the new baseline for subsequent comparisons and measurements.
2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Constantinos Sofocleous, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
October 25, 2019

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
October 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
October 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
October 25, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
October 28, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
October 29, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
November 3, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
November 2, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
November 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 19-332

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center supports the international committee of medical journal editors (ICMJE) and the ethical obligation of responsible sharing of data from clinical trials. The protocol summary, a statistical summary, and informed consent form will be made available on clinicaltrials.gov when required as a condition of Federal awards, other agreements supporting the research and/or as otherwise required. Requests for deidentified individual participant data can be made beginning 12 months after publication and for up to 36 months post publication. Deidentified individual participant data reported in the manuscript will be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement and may only be used for approved proposals. Requests may be made to: crdatashare@mskcc.org.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Cookie Settings

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. For more details carefully read our Privacy and Cookies Policy. ...>>>You can change your preferences or withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the cookies from your website or computer as described in the policy. Please accept it and choose your preferences by ticking the corresponding boxes in the "Manage Settings" section below. Please carefully read our Terms of Service before you proceed with using any part of this website.
«Manage Settings