Life sciences · Journal article
Gut · September 24, 2026
No summary has been generated for this record yet. What follows is drawn from its source metadata only.
Journal article.
No findings were extractable from the material analysed.
Safety was not reported in the material analysed. Check the source before drawing any conclusion about harm.
The source did not state who this applies to in practice.
Graded across the dimensions that decide whether you should act, each from what the source actually supports. There is no single score, and where a dimension was not assessed it says so.
This record has not been graded across any dimension yet. Treat the label above as provisional and read the source.
What is missing. This record has no bottom line, key findings, reported figures, evidence dimensions. That is a gap in the analysis, not a judgement about the study.
Background Advances in systemic therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have fuelled a growing interest in evaluating these therapies in earlier stages of disease. However, trial design remains challenging due to the marked clinical and biological heterogeneity of early-stage and intermediate-stage HCC. Objective A multidisciplinary group of cancer experts was convened by the HCC-Live Consortium to discuss inclusion criteria, risk stratification, treatment arms and appropriate endpoints of trials evaluating perioperative and combination therapies in patients with HCC. Design Consensus statements were defined as those obtaining >70% approval by panellists. Results The panel achieved consensus regarding nine consensus statements for neoadjuvant or perioperative systemic therapy and nine statements for combination locoregional plus systemic therapy. Statements emphasised recruiting carefully selected patient populations, employing treatment strategies and duration that balance efficacy with safety and using clinically relevant endpoints. Trials evaluating neoadjuvant/perioperative approaches should include patients at the highest risk of recurrence, with a recommended primary outcome of 2-year event-free survival using restricted mean survival time. Trials evaluating combination therapies should include a homogeneous patient population and use an appropriate comparator arm that aligns with clinical practice. Specifically, systemic therapy was the recommended comparator arm for patients with larger tumour burden and locally advanced disease. The recommended primary outcome for combination trials was progression-free survival and overall survival, with an alpha-recycling strategy. Secondary endpoints are essential to inform clinical applicability. Conclusion Optimal design of HCC trials is important to rigorously evaluate the role of systemic therapy in patients undergoing surgical resection or in combination with locoregional therapy.