NeuWave Microwave Ablation HCC China Study (NW)

A Single-Arm, Prospective, Multicenter Study to Evaluate the Safety and Effectiveness of the NeuWave Certus Microwave Ablation System in Chinese Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma

This is a single-arm, prospective, multicenter, study. Individuals who are assessed for microwave (MW) ablation of HCC in accordance with their institution's standard of care (SOC), who meet study entry criteria and sign the informed consent, will be enrolled. The patients will be treated with MW ablation and afterwards followed for up to 36 months after the original ablation procedure to assess efficacy and safety. In addition to the final analysis after all enrolled patients complete the 36-month observation period, a summary of selected endpoints will be provided after all enrolled patients have completed each of the 1-month and 12-month visits.

To provide sites with an opportunity to get equal experience in the use of the Certus system, there will 3 patients treated as part of a run-in phase. These patients will only be included in the safety set.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Hepatocellular Carcinoma; Liver Tumor
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: Microwave ablation

Detailed Description

Patients who have a single HCC tumor up to 5 cm or a maximum of 3 HCC tumors of up to 3 cm per tumor will receive the same procedure: microwave ablation using only the NeuWave Certus Microwave Ablation System. Patients in this study will come to their study site for the ablation procedure. After the ablation procedure, the patient will be observed, which in most cases is expected to be 2 to 3 hours, and afterwards may return home. If the Study Doctor decides it is warranted for patient safety, the patient will remain in the hospital longer.

A minimum of one MRI of the liver must be taken at Baseline/Screening to ascertain tumor type, location, and size. (Tumor size will be measured in longest diameter and the diameter that is perpendicular to this longest diameter; tumor size must be measured with at least 2D imaging.) Physicians who are experienced with tumor ablation will do all ablations percutaneously using only the NeuWave Certus Ablation System. During the ablation, patients will be under an anesthesia method as per the institution's SOC. Ultrasound and/or CT scan will be used to guide the probe to the tumor and confirm accurate placement of the probe prior to emitting the microwaves.

Within 7 days after ablation, contrast-enhanced MRI will be done to confirm the completion of the ablation procedure. According to the standard practice at each study site, ablation confirmation will be classified as:

• complete tumor ablation with adequate margin (A0).
• complete tumor ablation with insufficient margin (A1).
• incomplete tumor ablation (A2). Over the course of 3 years, patients will return to their study site for post ablation follow-up visits, which will be carried out per the Schedule of Activities (see Table 1 at the end of the Synopsis). The follow-up schedule will be based on the original ablation procedure date. A re-ablation for any reason will not re-start or change the follow-up visit schedule.

At every follow-up visit, every patient will be scanned with at least one MRI to see if there are any tumor foci at the edge of the ablation zone, which indicates tumor progression. Repeat microwave ablation (using the Certus Microwave Ablation System only) may be performed for recurrence of target tumor(s) or to achieve complete tumor ablation with adequate margin (A0) of the target tumor(s) if the initial ablation had an insufficient margin, if the treating physician deems appropriate and necessary.

While repeat ablations for a recurrence may be conducted at any point during the study duration, repeat ablations to correct an ablative margin may only be performed within the first 30 days of the original ablation (by Visit 3).

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 135
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• China
  • Beijing, China, 100089
    • Chinese PLA General Hospital
  • Shanghai, China, 200120
    • Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine
  • Guangdong
    • Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, 510000
      • Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center
    • Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, 510000
      • The First Affiliated Hospital,Sun Yat-sen University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosed primary or recurrent HCC determined in accordance with the institution's SOC procedure, a single tumor size up to 5 cm or a maximum of 3 tumors up to 3 cm per tumor. Tumor size must be measured with at least 2-dimensional (2D) imaging.
• Scheduled for microwave ablation of the liver.
• Performance status 0-2 (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group classification).
• Functional hepatic reserve based on the Child-Pugh score (Class A or B).
• Give voluntary, written informed consent to participate in this study and willing to comply with study-related evaluation and procedure schedule.
• At least 18 years of age.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. ASA score ≥ 4.
2. Active bacterial or fungal infections which are clinically significantly.
3. Chemotherapy or radiation therapy for HCC performed within 30 days prior to the study procedure.
4. Patient with implantable pacemakers or other electronic implants.
5. Planned/ scheduled liver surgery.
6. Platelet count ≤ 50 × 109/L.
7. Patients with uncorrectable coagulopathy at time of screening based on investigator judgement. Severe blood coagulation dysfunction (bleeding tendency, prothrombin time [PT] was greater than normal control for 3~5 seconds, platelet count [PLT] was less than 50x109/L, and the international normalized ratio [INR] was greater than 1.5).
8. Patient with renal failure and on renal dialysis.
9. Scheduled concurrent procedure other than MW ablation in the liver.
10. Pregnant or breast feeding.
11. Physical or psychological condition which would impair study participation.
12. Participation in any other interventional clinical study within 1 month before screening and concurrently during the study.
13. The patient is judged unsuitable for study participation by the investigator for any other reason.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Single-arm; Subjects will be treated with microwave ablation.	Device: Microwave ablation; Subjects will be treated with microwave ablation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Technical Efficacy	Defined as a combination of A0 ablations (complete tumor ablation with a surrounding 5 mm margin) and A1 ablations ( complete tumor ablation with inadequate margins), based on contrast-enhanced MRI scans at 1 month (+/- 7 days) post-ablation.	Day 23 to Day 37

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Technical Success	Defined as the combination of A0 ablations (complete tumor ablation with a surrounding 5 mm margin) and A1 ablations (complete tumor ablation with inadequate margins) based on contrast-enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) performed up to 7 days post-ablation.	Day 0 to Day 7
Local Tumor Progression	Local Tumor Progression (LTP) was the appearance of tumor foci at the edge of the ablation zone, after at least one contrast-enhanced follow-up MRI scan had documented adequate ablation and an absence of viable tissue in the target tumor and surrounding ablation margin by using imaging.	1 Month to 36 Months
Overall Survival	Measured from the time of the initial ablation procedure to the time of death or last follow-up, if death has not occurred	36 months
Progression-Free Survival	The length of time from the original ablation procedure until any type of disease progression (local, regional, or distant) or until death.	36 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Safety Endpoint	Adverse events (AEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs) reported at each analysis and cumulatively throughout the entire study period.	1,3,6,9,12,18,24,30,36 months
Numeric Pain Rating Scale	The Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) is a patient-reported outcome. Patients will complete this scale before the ablation procedure (measured at the Screening Visit), post ablation (within 7 days after ablation), and at the 1-month follow-up visit. This scale ranges from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst possible pain).	7 days/1 month（±7days）
EORTC QLQ-C30 Questionnaire	EORTC QLQ-C30 is a patient-reported questionnaire that assesses the health-related quality-of-life (QOL) of cancer patients. This questionnaire is assessed before the ablation procedure (measured at Screening Visit), post ablation (within 7 days after ablation), and at each follow-up visit. The questionnaire individual questions range in scores from 0 to 100 with a higher score correlating to a better quality of life for the patient for 'function' questions but correlates to worse symptoms for 'symptom' questions.	7days/1,3,6,9,12,18,24,30,36 months
EORTC QLQ-HCC18 Questionnaire	EORTC QLQ-HCC18 is a patient-reported questionnaire that assesses the health-related quality-of-life (QOL) of hepatocellular cancer patients. This questionnaire is assessed before the ablation procedure (measured at Screening Visit), post ablation (within 7 days after ablation), and at each follow-up visit. All individual questions are scored from 0 to 100 with a higher score correlating with a more severe symptom or problem.	7days/1,3,6,9,12,18,24,30,36 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Ethicon, Inc.
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Ping Liang, Doctor, Leading PI; Principal Investigator: Jinhua Huang, Doctor, Co-PI; Principal Investigator: Xiaoyan Xie, Doctor, Co-PI; Principal Investigator: Bo Zhai, Doctor, Co-PI

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 18, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 17, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): January 17, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 30, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 20, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): December 21, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 24, 2025
• Last Verified: April 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: HCC
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms by Site; Neoplasms; Neoplasms by Histologic Type; Digestive System Neoplasms; Digestive System Diseases; Liver Diseases; Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial; Adenocarcinoma; Liver Neoplasms; Carcinoma; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular
• Other Study ID Numbers: NEU_2017_07

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.: Yes