Retrospective Clinical Validation of HepatoPredict

HepatoPredict is an innovative prognostic tool to support hepatologists, hepatobiliary surgeons and multidisciplinary teams in deciding on the best therapeutical approach for a patient with Hepatocellular Carcinoma, the most common type of primary liver cancer. HepatoPredict is a laboratory test that analyses a molecular signature from a small tumour sample and combines this information with details from imaging tests, such as the number of nodules and their size. Using a computational model, HepatoPredict determines whether a patient is likely to remain disease-free after hepatic surgery (good prognosis) or if there is a higher chance of the tumour returning (bad prognosis). Current selection criteria to assess the eligibility of patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma for liver transplantation present several problems, including: 1. selection of patients that will not benefit from a transplant. This could be due to recurrence of cancer or early death from another cause. 2. exclusion of patients who could benefit from a liver transplant but are currently not eligible; 3. increased tumor recurrence rates. Thus, improved tools that predict the likelihood of cancer coming back are needed to better assess if a patient will benefit from hepatic surgery. This will allow better use of organs, waiting list times, and improve ways of identifying the most appropriate treatments for individual patients. HepatoPredict accurately selects patients for hepatic surgery, outperforming conventional clinical criteria. In previous retrospective studies, HepatoPredict predicted successful surgery outcomes in patients who were not eligible by currently used criteria. This study aims to retrospectively validate the prognostic tool HepatoPredict in assessing how well a patient with Hepatocellular Carcinoma performed considering recurrence-free survival (no cancer recurrence) and overall survival after 5 years follow-up after liver surgery or liver transplantation.

Sex

All

Minimum age

18 Years

Inclusion Criteria:

* Age ≥ 18 years old.
* Patients with HCC that underwent transplantation, with at least 5 years follow-up.
* Patients with HCC that underwent surgical resection, with at least 5 years follow-up.
* Completed informed consent process (for patient candidates that are still alive).

Exclusion Criteria:

* Age \< 18 years old.
* Other non-HCC liver cancers patients.
* Patients with tumor extra-hepatic spread at diagnosis.

• BACKGROUNDAndrade R, Perez-Rojas J, da Silva SG, Miskinyte M, Quaresma MC, Frazao LP, Peixoto C, Cubells A, Montalva EM, Figueiredo A, Cipriano A, Goncalves-Reis M, Proenca D, Folgado A, Pereira-Leal JB, Oliveira RC, Pinto-Marques H, Tralhao JG, Berenguer M, Cardoso J. HepatoPredict Accurately Selects Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients for Liver Transplantation Regardless of Tumor Heterogeneity. Cancers (Basel). 2025 Feb 2;17(3):500. doi: 10.3390/cancers17030500. PMID 39941867
• BACKGROUNDGoncalves-Reis M, Proenca D, Frazao LP, Neto JL, Silva S, Pinto-Marques H, Pereira-Leal JB, Cardoso J. Analytical validation and algorithm improvement of HepatoPredict kit to assess hepatocellular carcinoma prognosis before a liver transplantation. Pract Lab Med. 2024 Feb 5;39:e00365. doi: 10.1016/j.plabm.2024.e00365. eCollection 2024 Mar. PMID 38371895
• BACKGROUNDPinto-Marques H, Cardoso J, Silva S, Neto JL, Goncalves-Reis M, Proenca D, Mesquita M, Manso A, Carapeta S, Sobral M, Figueiredo A, Rodrigues C, Milheiro A, Carvalho A, Perdigoto R, Barroso E, Pereira-Leal JB. A Gene Expression Signature to Select Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients for Liver Transplantation. Ann Surg. 2022 Nov 1;276(5):868-874. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000005637. Epub 2022 Aug 1. PMID 35916378