May 18, 2025, 01:11

ASPIRE-AECC: Improving the Survival of Liver Cancer Patients by Combining Immunotherapy and Surgery

Directed by Drs. Josep M. Llovet Bayer and Xosé R. Bustelo, the ASPIRE-AECC project aims to improve outcomes for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)—the most common and aggressive form of liver cancer, which has survival rates below 30% and affects approximately 6,500 individuals annually in Spain. While surgery and liver transplantation are standard treatments, they are only viable for 25% of patients, and recurrence occurs in 30–50% of cases within three years post-surgery.

This project addresses three urgent clinical needs:

Develop immunotherapies that reduce recurrence and improve survival outcomes
Identify predictive biomarkers to select patients most likely to respond to treatment
Discover therapeutic alternatives for patients resistant to current therapies

ASPIRE-AECC includes a clinical trial at 15 hospitals testing whether dual immunotherapy, administered before and after surgery, can improve disease-free survival, following successful approaches seen in melanoma and lung cancer. Simultaneously, researchers at 10 Spanish institutions will analyze patient samples to identify biomarkers for response prediction and investigate mechanisms of resistance with the goal of developing targeted pharmacological strategies.

AECC ASPIRE cancer recurrence clinical trial HCC hepatocellular carcinoma immune-oncology immunotherapy Josep M Llovet liver cancer oncology research personalized therapy predictive biomarkers Spain Spanish Association Against Cancer surgery translational research Tumor Resistance Xosé R. Bustelo

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