The Need for Novel Neoadjuvant Therapies in HCC

Thomas Marron, PhD, MD, assistant director of early phase and immunotherapy clinical trial at the Tisch Cancer Institute and assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai discusses the need for effective neoadjuvant therapies in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

According to Marron, surgeons at his cancer center perform well over 100 surgeries for HCC a year, but the vast majority of patients have recurrence, most of which is a local or regional occurrence. Vary rarely is the recurrence in the surgery margin. Marron says this means that most of the recurrence is due to micro metastatic disease.

To date, no trials have demonstrated survival advantage of preoperative or post-operative therapy in HCC. However, according to Marron, the neoadjuvant space is growing for many cancer types. Due to the lack of research, HCC is an optimal space for this growth to occur.

According to Marron, incidences of HCC is growing due to both Hepatitis B and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis infections, which are becoming increasingly more common in the United States. As health care providers become more efficient at detecting early stage operable legions, it’s important that surgery become the determining therapy.