Assessing the Immune profile in HCC
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessing the Immune profile in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
IRAS ID
282129
Contact name
Tim Meyer
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2020/11/27, UCL data protection
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 3 months, 3 days
Research summary
Liver cancer, predominantly hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death. Unlike many other cancers, HCC-related mortality is on the rise, posing a major health challenge. Recent research has shown promising clinical responses from therapeutic strategies that boost immune responses against tumour. However, response rates are low and there are currently no predictive biomarkers to select patients. Therefore, there is an urgent need to define the subgroup of patients that respond and understand the mechanism of resistance in those that do not.
Our group specialises in investigating the immune landscape of liver pathology including HCC. Previous studies show that exhausted CD8 T cells are a hallmark of HCC. Other immunosuppressive cells (such as myeloid derived suppressor cells, regulatory T cells), checkpoint molecules and local metabolic environment also contribute to failure of immune clearance.
We aim to investigate the effect of immunotherapy treatments on immune cell subtypes and mechanisms by which resistance can be rescued to achieve tumour control in order to improve treatment strategies in HCC.
We will study blood and liver samples (using liver biopsy tissue and fine needle aspiration) from treated and untreated patients to understand how immune responses in the blood differ from the site of disease during treatment. It is expected that markers indicative of treatment response and resistance will be identified and guide future selection of patients most likely to respond to available therapies.
REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/WM/0205
Date of REC Opinion
19 Oct 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion