Summary
Currently, what treatment people with early stage liver cancer are offered varies in individual circumstances but can include:
- Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or microwave ablation (MWA) techniques that use heating probes directly inserted into the tumour to kill the ancer cells.
- Transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) or transarterial radioembolisation (TARE) that uses chemotherapy or radioactive particles injected into the blood supply of the tumour to kill the cancer cells.
- Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy (SABR) is a highly precise radiation therapy technique that uses high energy x-rays focused on the tumour to kill the cancer cells.
About this study
This study is recruiting people with primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who have not yet received any prior treatment for this.
Participants in the study will be randomly allocated to one of two treatment groups.
Group 1: Participants will receive radiation therapy using the SABR technique which will be delivered in 3 or 5 outpatient treatment sessions (each 20-45 minutes in duration) spaced out over 1-2 weeks. The exact number of treatment sessions received, and the duration of each session depends on the size and location of the liver cancer.
Group 2: Participants will receive standard of care treatment as per their institution's local practice that will be administered by a doctor called an Interventional Radiologist. The therapies offered will depend on the size and location of the liver cancer and may include one or a combination of RFA/MWA and/or TACE/TARE. This may require an anaesthetic and an overnight admission to the hospital.
Regular follow-up visits will be scheduled at 4 weeks post-treatment and then 3-monthly intervals for 2 years, and then 6 monthly until the completion of the trial. The same procedures will be repeated but also include iamging: CT or MRI of the liver, blood tests, clinical assessments and a questionnaire on the patient's health status (collected 6 monthly until completion of the trial).