The Dragon PLC Trial (DRAGON-PLC)

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Primary Liver Cancer; Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC); Cholangiocarcinoma

• Registration Number: NCT06914648
• Lead Sponsor: Maastricht University

Brief Summary

The goal of the DRAGON PLC clinical trial is to determine whether portal vein embolization (PVE) combined with hepatic vein embolization (HVE) improves resectability and overall survival in patients with initially unresectable primary liver cancer compared to standard PVE alone. This trial specifically focuses on patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma.

The main questions this trial aims to answer are whether combined PVE and HVE increases the proportion of patients who become resectable within 3 weeks and improves 5-year overall survival compared to PVE alone by enhancing liver hypertrophy.

Participants will:

* Undergo either standard PVE or combined PVE and HVE.

* Have regular imaging to assess liver resectability.

* Be monitored for survival outcomes up to 5 years after intervention.

Detailed Description

Primary liver cancer (PLC) is the third most common cause of cancer death worldwide. Surgical resection is the mainstay for a curative approach as contemporary chemotherapy and immune-based therapies only lead to a median survival of 10-14 months. A complete surgical resection increases the median survival to 42 months (range 32-52 months). However, PLC is mainly diagnosed at an advanced stage and \>70% of PLC patients are ineligible for an immediate surgical approach. There are different reasons that make a patient ineligible for surgery, one important reason is the risk of liver failure after the surgery due to a small remnant liver.

This study aims to improve the oncological, radiological and surgical strategy to allow more patients to undergo liver resection safely, to improve quality of life and to extend overall survival at acceptable costs.

Adequate function of the future liver remnant (FLR) is a prerequisite for surgical resectability. This is necessary in order to avoid liver failure after surgery, a major cause of morbidity (38%) and mortality (27%). To mitigate this risk, regenerative strategies based on preoperative calculation of the FLR volume and function are essential. Patients with technically resectable disease but predicted insufficient FLR volume or function are referred to as primarily unresectable or potentially resectable (PU/PR). These patients can undergo strategies that capitalize on the regenerative capacity of the liver which aim to preoperatively increase the FLR volume and function in order to allow surgery. Many of the patients that are primarily unresectable due to an insufficient FLR can become ultimately and safely resectable after the induction of adequate FLR-hypertrophy by the current standard, portal vein embolisation (PVE). However, 25% of patients do not show sufficient FLR growth after PVE and are unable to safely undergo resection. A new approach has been developed to improve this. Combined portal and hepatic vein embolisation (PVE/HVE) has great promise in terms of increasing FLR growth, resection rate (RR), safety and potentially, overall survival. Establishing PVE/HVE as the new standard could result in increased survival and a better quality of life (QoL) for patients.

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2025-02
• Study First Submitted: 2025-03-21
• Study First Submitted QC: 2025-03-31
• Study Start: 2025-04-01
• Study First Posted: 2025-04-06
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-05-12
• Last Update Posted: 2025-05-15
• Primary Completion: 2032-11-15
• Study Completion: 2032-11-15

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 358

Inclusion Criteria

• PLC diagnosis, specifically iCCC, pCCC, and HCC;
• Requiring PVE due to an FLR volume is <30% in normally functioning livers, <40% in livers with potentially impaired function e.g. resulting from prior systemic therapy induction or bile duct colonization / transpapillary biliary drainage, or <50% in livers with severely impaired function resulting from liver cirrhosis (max. Child Pugh A5) OR function on hepatobiliary scintigraphy (HEBIS) is < 2.7 %/min/m2;
• Age ≥ 18 years;
• Able to understand the trial and provide informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria

• Liver cirrhosis with a Child-Pugh score of B or C;
• Presence of portal hypertension;
• Presence of cholangitis;
• Pregnant women;
• Premenopausal females not able/willing to commit to contraception (specifically long-acting reversible contraception or hormonal contraception);
• Patients unresectable due to prohibitive comorbidities (decision made by local multidisciplinary team);
• Patients with hepatic malignancies other than iCCC, pCCC or HCC;
• PVE/HVE anatomically not feasible;
• Any patient with non-resectable or non-ablatable extrahepatic metastatic disease.
• Unable to understand the study information, study instructions and give informed consent

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Overall survival	5 years	survival data will be recorded up to 5-years
Resectability 3 weeks after embolisation	3 weeks	The FLR is considered sufficient for resection 3 weeks after embolisation. Definition resectable: Patients are deemed resectable if the FLR is ≥30% in normally functioning livers, ≥40% in livers with potentially impaired function (e.g. resulting from prior systemic therapy or bile duct colonization / transpapillary biliary drainage), or ≥50% in livers with severely impaired function resulting from liver cirrhosis (max. Child Pugh A5) OR for any FLR volume, function on hepatobiliary scintigraphy is \> 2.7 %/min/m2

Trial Locations

Locations (55)

Yale School of Medicine Hospital; 🇺🇸 New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Rush University Medical Center; 🇺🇸 Chicago, Illinois, United States

Mayo Clinic; 🇺🇸 Rochester, Minnesota, United States

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; 🇺🇸 New York, New York, United States

Cleveland Clinic; 🇺🇸 Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Foothills Medical Center; 🇨🇦 Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Vancouver General Hospital; 🇨🇦 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Center; 🇨🇦 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre; 🇨🇦 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Kingston Health Sciences Centre; 🇨🇦 Kingston, Ontario, Canada

London Health Sciences Centre; 🇨🇦 London, Ontario, Canada

St. Joseph's Health Centre; 🇨🇦 Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sunnybrook Hospital; 🇨🇦 Toronto, Ontario, Canada

University Health Network/TGH; 🇨🇦 Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke; 🇨🇦 Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada

Royal University Hospital; 🇨🇦 Saskatoon, Canada

Universitätklinikum Dresden; 🇩🇪 Dresden, Germany

Universitätklinikum Hannover; 🇩🇪 Hannover, Germany

Universitätklinikum Köln; 🇩🇪 Köln, Germany

Ospedale San Raffaele; 🇮🇹 Milan, Italy

University Hospital Oslo; 🇳🇴 Oslo, Norway

University Hospital Linköping; 🇸🇪 Linköping, Sweden

Karolinska University Hospital Stockholm; 🇸🇪 Stockholm, Sweden

Cantonal Hospital Winterthur; 🇨🇭 Winterthur, Zürich, Switzerland

Claraspital Basel; 🇨🇭 Basel, Switzerland

Universitätsspital Basel; 🇨🇭 Basel, Switzerland

CHUV - Lausanne University Hospital; 🇨🇭 Lausanne, Switzerland

Hirslanden Klinik St. Anna; 🇨🇭 Luzern, Switzerland

Hirslanden Klinik; 🇨🇭 Zürich, Switzerland

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust; 🇬🇧 Belfast, United Kingdom

Queen Elizabeth Hospital; 🇬🇧 Birmingham, United Kingdom

Aintree University Hospital; 🇬🇧 Liverpool, United Kingdom

Kings college Hospital; 🇬🇧 London, United Kingdom

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; 🇬🇧 Oxford, United Kingdom

University Hospital Southampton; 🇬🇧 Southampton, United Kingdom

Monash Medical Center; 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Australia

Medical University of Vienna; 🇦🇹 Vienna, Austria

Social Center South; 🇦🇹 Vienna, Austria

Erasmus Hospital; 🇧🇪 Brussels, Bruxelles, Belgium

UZ Antwerpen; 🇧🇪 Antwerp, Edegem, Belgium

CHU-UCL Namur site Godinne (UCLouvain); 🇧🇪 Yvoir, Namen, Belgium

Cliniques Universitaires Saint Luc, UCLouvain; 🇧🇪 Brussels, Belgium

UZ Gent; 🇧🇪 Gent, Belgium

Jessa Hospital; 🇧🇪 Hasselt, Belgium

UZ Brussel; 🇧🇪 Jette, Belgium

AZ Groeninge Hospital Kortrijk; 🇧🇪 Kortrijk, Belgium

CHU Liège; 🇧🇪 Liège, Belgium

Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal; 🇨🇦 Montreal, Canada

McGill University Health Centre, Montreal; 🇨🇦 Montreal, Canada

L'Hopital d'Ottawa; 🇨🇦 Ottawa, Canada

Maastricht Universitair Medisch Centrum+; 🇳🇱 Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands

Amsterdam UMC, location VUMC; 🇳🇱 Amsterdam, Noord Holland, Netherlands

Maxima Medisch Centrum; 🇳🇱 Eindhoven, Netherlands

Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen; 🇳🇱 Groningen, Netherlands

Leiden Universitair Medisch Centrum; 🇳🇱 Leiden, Netherlands