Effects of Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy on Anti-tumour Immunity in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Undergoing Liver Resection

Our study aims to evaluate the benefit of the administration of immunotherapy (atezolizumab), in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), prior surgical resection of the tumor.

HCC is the most prevalent primary liver cancer, responsible for nearly 800,000 deaths annually, making it the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Ablation by radiologic micro-waves or surgical resection represent at the moment the only curative therapies for early stages of the disease. Despite these curative options, HCC recurrence is frequent.

Recently, immunotherapy has demonstrated good results on patient overall survival for advanced stages of HCC in comparison to sorafenib. Because of the beneficial effect of immunotherapy on HCC, several groups have attempt to use it as adjuvant therapy in order to reduce the recurrence rate. However the results are at the moment controversial. One can hypothetize that postoperative inflammation and liver regeneration can negatively impact the effect of the immunotherapy. Therefore, the administration of the treatmeent before surgical resection could overcome this issue.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Hepato Cellular Carcinoma (HCC); Immunotherapy
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Atezolizumab

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 30
• Phase: Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Charles-Henri Wassmer, MD-PhD; Phone Number: +41786682206; Email: charles-henri.wassmer@hug.ch
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Christian Toso, Professor; Phone Number: +41795533673; Email: christian.toso@hug.ch

Study Locations

• Switzerland
  • Geneva, Switzerland, 1205
    • Geneva University Hospitals
    • Contact: Charles-Henri Wassmer, MD-PhD; Phone Number: +41786682206; Email: charles-henri.wassmer@hug.ch

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All adult patients undergoing liver resection for HCC at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), with prior informed and signed consent.
• Patients of childbearing age must be willing to use a contraception at the day of inclusion and for at least 5 months after the last infusion.
• Negative pregnancy test at inclusion
• Patients will require to be eligible for surgical resection according to the BCLC guidelines (very early to early stage with preserved liver function and good patient condition) (4).
• The control group will include data from the patients in our ongoing research project (study protocol 2023-02372), undergoing liver resection without prior ICI therapy (n = 30).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who do not ultimately undergo liver resection due to unforeseen reasons (this happens rarely, such as in the presence of unexpected HCC progression discovered during surgery).
• Patients with an ongoing pregnancy (an unlikely event, as non-surgical HCC treatments would be prioritized in such cases).
• Patients unable to follow procedures due to language barriers, insufficient comprehension of project language, or unable to give consent.
• Patients <18 years.
• Patients with medical history of allergy or severe AEs to ICI therapy
• Pregnant and/or breastfeeding women. Lactating women should stop lactation or will be excluded from the study as breastfeeding under atezolizumab is not recommended. Furthermore, breastfeeding is not recommended for at least 5 months after the last dose.
• Immunosuppressed patients and patients with haematological disorder leading to a deficient immunity
• Patients with hepatic and/or cardiovascular deficiencies that contra-indicate surgery. Compensated cirrhotic patients are expected and will be included in the study as no dosage modification of the atezolizumab is required for these patients.
• Patients who received a live or attenuated vaccine in the last 28 days before inclusion in the study.
• Patients with untreated Hepatitis B and/or C or HIV. HIV patients under treatment with normal CD4 counts can be included. Hepatitis B and/or C patients under antiviral therapies can be included.
• Patients with history of inflammatory pneumopathy, active brain metastasis and patients treated with a systemic immunotherapy in the last 6 months.
• Patients under steroid treatment during the inclusion will be excluded.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Treated group. Patients receiving immunotherapy before surgical resection of their HCC	Drug: Atezolizumab; Patients will receive two doses of atzolizumab 6 and 3 weeks before surgery
No Intervention: Control group; Patients undergoing surgical resection for HCC without any neoadjuvant treatment

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Difference in frequency of flow cytometry-assessed HCC-specific CD8+ cells in the periphery (PBMC) between patients with vs without ICI therapy prior to liver surgery	We will assess the impact of ICI therapy on the frequency of HCC-specific CD8+ lymphocytes. The currently recruited patients will be compared to historical patients without ICI treatment. After flow cytometry sorting, bulk RNA sequencing of CD8+ cells will be performed. The SEQTR method will define the frequency of HCC-specific TCR.	Four years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Tumor microenvironment changes induced by ICI therapy	Especially changes in HCC-specific T cell response in the periphery after versus prior to surgery. TCR subtypes will be identified by TCR single cell sequencing in the peripheral blood and in the tumor. Additionnaly immune cell type population, their activation and suppression markers as well as the frequency of the subtypes will be assesed by flow cytometry (CD8, CD4, memory T cells, exhausted markers (PD-L1, TIM-3, LAG-2)).	four years
Overall survival and recurrence free survival	We will analyze the survival and recurrence rates in order to evaluate the impact or potential benefit of neoadjuvant atezolizumab	four years
Tumor burden	We will evaluate the impact of atezolizumab on the tumor burden such as the number and size of HCC nodules and compare it before the treatment and before surgery to evaluate the level of downstaging of the tumor that we can expect.	Four years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Geneva, Switzerland

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): March 25, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2029
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2029

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 24, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 4, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): March 10, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 10, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 4, 2026
• Last Verified: March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; atezolizumab; Neoadjuvant treatment; hepatectomy
• 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; atezolizumab
• Other Study ID Numbers: HCCsurgICI2025

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No