Hepatocellular Carcinoma Research

HCC research explores IO-based combinations, locoregional-systemic integration, and treatment sequencing by liver function and tumor burden.

Our Hepatocellular Carcinoma Analysis

• September 24, 2026JAMA Oncology

  Modifiable Risk Factors Account for an Estimated 84% of the Male–Female Cancer Gap in China but 26% in the UK

  A multicohort analysis of 589,766 adults aged 40 to 74 years without prior cancer, drawn from the Shanghai Men’s Health Study, the Shanghai Women’s Health Study and UK Biobank, estimated how much of the higher cancer incidence in males is attributable to 11 lifestyle factors and health conditions.

• September 22, 2026Nature MedicinePATHFINDER 2 (NCT05155605)

  Multi-Cancer Blood Test Reaches 60% Positive Predictive Value and 99.6% Specificity in Largest Prospective Screening Study to Date

  PATHFINDER 2, a prospective, interventional cohort study of 35,878 adults aged 50 and older with no clinical suspicion of cancer, evaluated the performance and safety of a blood-based multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test that analyzes cell-free DNA methylation patterns to detect a shared cancer signal and predict its tissue of origin.

• August 19, 2026Nature MedicineNCT07153783

  AI System Matches Radiologists, Catches Missed Liver Cancers in Real-World Trial

  In a prospective single-arm trial of 10,333 patients, an AI system called LiON (Liver DiagnOsis Network) met its primary endpoint for diagnosing liver malignancy on contrast-enhanced CT, achieving an AUC of 0.952 (95% CI: 0.942–0.961) — with an even higher AUC of 0.975 (95% CI: 0.971–0.979) in a separate 22,251-patient multicenter retrospective validation.

• August 20, 2026JAMA Oncology

  Industry Now Outpaces Federal Cancer Trial Sponsorship Nearly 5 to 1 — And the Gap Is Widening

  A registry-based analysis of 11,681 US interventional cancer trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov between 2008 and 2024 found that industry sponsors now outnumber federal sponsors nearly 5 to 1 (4.53-to-1 overall), with the ratio widening from 2.72-to-1 in 2008–2012 to 6.44-to-1 in 2019–2024.

• July 30, 2026JAMA OncologyTORCH (NCT02435953)

  TACE Plus Thermal Ablation Nearly Halves Progression Risk in Intermediate-Stage Liver Cancer

  Phase 3 TORCH trial (241 patients, two tertiary centers in China, enrolled 2015-2024) randomized adults with unresectable, liver-confined, intermediate-stage (BCLC stage B) hepatocellular carcinoma 1:1 to transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) plus sequential radiofrequency ablation versus TACE alone.

• July 17, 2026Clinical Cancer ResearchPooled Mixture-Cure-Model Analysis of HIMALAYA (NCT03298451), CheckMate 9DW (NCT04039607), RATIONALE-301 (NCT03412773)

  Immunotherapy Achieves Durable Survival, Modest Cure Fractions in Advanced Liver Cancer

  A pooled, secondary mixture-cure-model analysis of three mature Phase III trials (HIMALAYA, CheckMate 9DW, RATIONALE-301) plus a large real-world cohort estimates how many patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) achieve durable, cure-like outcomes on first-line immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) regimens.