CClinicalTrials.gg
Active, not recruitingNCT03896646Updated May 22, 2026

Radioembolization for HCC Patients With Personalized Yttrium-90 Dosimetry for Curative Intent (RAPY90D)

An interventional study of Computed Tomography and Hepatobiliary Iminodiacetic Acid Scan in Stage III Hepatocellular Carcinoma AJCC v8, Stage IIIA Hepatocellular Carcinoma AJCC v8 and Stage IIIB Hepatocellular Carcinoma AJCC v8, sponsored by M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-05-22.

Sponsored by M.D. Anderson Cancer Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
42
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This trial aims to improve hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor responses in patients undergoing Y90 radioembolization by using personalized dosimetry as part of treatment planning. Using standard calculations for Y90 doses may not be specific enough for individual patients given that there can be differences in how tumor cells and liver cells respond to radiation. Personalized dose plans may help improve treatment and outcomes in liver cancer.

Read the detailed description

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To achieve tumor objective response rates of 75% using voxel based dosimetry when the mean dose (Dmean) to tumor is targeted to be greater than 200 Gray (Gy).

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Correlate changes in liver function and Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) incidence to the mean absorbed dose to normal liver.

II. Prospectively validate the accuracy of our published tumor dose response prediction based on the yttrium Y 90 glass microspheres (yttrium-90 [Y90]) tumor dose volume histograms (DVHs).

III. Correlate predicted tumor doses macroaggregated albumin (MAA) scan with actual doses delivered (Y90 scan).

IV. Develop a tumor dose response model prediction based on the MAA dose maps. V. Develop a model correlating normal liver radiation dose to liver function using single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography hepatobiliary iminodiacetic acid (SPECT/CT HIDA) imaging.

VI. Develop a model correlating the relative tumor to normal liver enhancement on CT imaging and Cone beam CT imaging to the uptake on SPECT CT Tc99m MAA imaging (gold standard).

VII. Compare tumor and normal liver doses estimations from SPECT CT Bremsstrahlung imaging to positron emission tomography (PET) CT imaging.

OUTLINE:

Patients undergo yttrium-90 microsphere radioembolization with yttrium Y 90 glass microspheres using personalized dose measurements. Patients also undergo SPECT/CT HIDA scan before radioembolization and 2-4 months after radioembolization.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 3 and 6 months.

02

Conditions studied

  • Stage III Hepatocellular Carcinoma AJCC v8
  • Stage IIIA Hepatocellular Carcinoma AJCC v8
  • Stage IIIB Hepatocellular Carcinoma AJCC v8
  • Stage IV Hepatocellular Carcinoma AJCC v8
  • Stage IVA Hepatocellular Carcinoma AJCC v8
  • Stage IVB Hepatocellular Carcinoma AJCC v8
  • Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma
03

In context

Carcinoma, Hepatocellular

3,182 studies on the registry are indexed under Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; 954 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 42 is below the median of 55 across 2,298 interventional studies indexed under Carcinoma, Hepatocellular.

Browse Carcinoma, Hepatocellular studies →

Lead sponsor

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is the lead sponsor of 2,999 studies on the registry; 581 are open to participants now.

Of its 599 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 402 (67%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  1. Patients over 18 years of age, of any race or sex, who have unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma of the liver, and who are able or have a fully able legal guardian to give informed consent, will be eligible. Patients must have an ECOG Performance Status score of \</=2, with a life expectancy of >/=3 months, and must be non-pregnant with an acceptable contraception in premenopausal women. Patients must be >4 weeks since prior radiation or prior surgery and at least one month post chemotherapy.
  2. At least one lesion >/= 3.0 cm in shortest dimension
  3. AST or ALT \<5 times ULN
  4. Bilirubin \</= 2.0 mg/dL (unless segmental infusion is used)
  5. Negative pregnancy test in premenopausal women

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Contraindications to angiography and selective visceral catheterization
  2. Evidence of potential delivery of greater than 16.5 mCi (30 Gy absorbed dose) to the lungs with a single injection, or greater than 50 Gy for multiple injections
  3. Evidence of any detectable Tc-99m MAA flow to the stomach or duodenum, after application of established angiographic techniques to stop or mitigate such flow (eg, placing catheter distal to gastric vessels)
  4. Significant extrahepatic disease representing an imminent life-threatening outcome
  5. Severe liver dysfunction or pulmonary insufficiency
  6. Active uncontrolled infection
  7. Significant underlying medical or psychiatric illness
  8. Pregnant
  9. Pre-existing diarrhea/illness, co-morbid disease or condition that would preclude safe delivery of TheraSphere® treatment and place the patient at undue risk
  10. Infiltrative tumors
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
42 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Treatment (personalized radioembolization, SPECT/CT HIDA)

    Patients undergo yttrium-90 microsphere radioembolization with yttrium Y 90 glass microspheres using personalized dose measurements. Patients also undergo SPECT/CT HIDA scan before radioembolization and 2-4 months after radioembolization.

    Procedure: Computed Tomography · Other: Hepatobiliary Iminodiacetic Acid Scan · Procedure: Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography · Radiation: Yttrium Y 90 Glass Microspheres · Procedure: Yttrium-90 Microsphere Radioembolization

Interventions

  • ProcedureComputed Tomography

    Undergo SPECT/CT HIDA scan

    Also known as: CAT, CAT Scan, Computerized Axial Tomography, computerized tomography, CT, CT SCAN, tomography

  • OtherHepatobiliary Iminodiacetic Acid Scan

    Undergo SPECT/CT HIDA scan

    Also known as: HIDA Scan

  • ProcedureSingle Photon Emission Computed Tomography

    Undergo SPECT/CT HIDA scan

    Also known as: Medical Imaging, Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography, Single Photon Emission Tomography, single-photon emission computed tomography, SPECT, SPECT imaging, SPECT SCAN, SPET, tomography, emission computed, single photon, Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

  • RadiationYttrium Y 90 Glass Microspheres

    Undergo radioembolization with yttrium Y 90 glass microspheres

    Also known as: TheraSphere

  • ProcedureYttrium-90 Microsphere Radioembolization

    Undergo yttrium-90 microsphere radioembolization

    Also known as: Yttrium Y 90 Microsphere Therapy, Yttrium-90 Radioembolization

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Tumor objective response rate (ORR)

    Assessed with modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (mRECIST) criteria. The ORR of treated tumors will be determined. Will perform a cluster bootstrap in which patients (not tumors) are sampled with replacement. Will construct a 95% confidence interval using the 2.5% and 97.5% quantiles of the bootstrap sampling distribution.

    Time frame: Up to 6 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. Changes in liver function

    Will analyze the correlation in changes in liver function to the mean absorbed dose to normal liver. The hepatobiliary iminodiacetic acid (HIDA) scan will be used to estimate the body-surface area corrected mebrofenin clearance rate in %-activity/sec/m\^2 using published methodology. The change in liver function after radioembolization will be calculated and correlated to the radiation dose distribution to the normal liver. Will use Wilcoxon and two-sample t-tests to measure significance of association.

    Time frame: Up to 6 months

  2. Changes in Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) incidence

    Will analyze the correlation in changes in CTCAE incidence to the mean absorbed dose to normal liver. Will create waterfall charts of CTCAE and mean absorbed normal liver in liver. Will use Wilcoxon and two-sample t-tests to measure significance of association and scatterplots and regression (linear or non-linear) to predict actual doses delivered from predicted tumor dose.

    Time frame: Up to 6 months

  3. Accuracy of published tumor dose response prediction based on the yttrium-90 (Y90) tumor dose volume histograms

    Lin's concordance correlation, t-test, and Bland-Altman analysis will be performed on pair-wise estimate of tumor doses. Develop tumor dose response curves using logistic regression and assess significance of parameters. Furthermore, we will compute the half-maximal dose (D50%), positive predictive value, negative predictive value and its 95% confidence interval from this prospective study. These values will be compared to those from the retrospective study for equivalence using the z-test.

    Time frame: Up to 6 months

  4. Prediction of tumor doses macroaggregated albumin (MAA) scan with actual doses delivered (Y90 scan)

    Lin's concordance correlation, t-test, and Bland-Altman analysis will be performed on pair-wise estimate of tumor doses. Will use scatterplots and regression (linear or non-linear) to predict actual doses delivered from predicted tumor dose. A correlation analysis of the predicted tumor doses from the MAA images with the actual tumor doses delivered from Y90 images will be performed. The linear-correlation coefficient will be computed. A Bland-Altman analysis will be performed to compute the bias and the 95% limits of agreement.

    Time frame: Up to 6 months

  5. Development of tumor dose response model prediction based on MAA dose maps

    Mean tumor doses based the planning 99mTc-MAA images will be computed using voxel dosimetry. A univariate logistic regression model will used to determine tumor dose metrics (D50%) that correlated with mRECIST-based tumor response at 3 and 6 months.

    Time frame: Up to 6 months

  6. Development of a model correlating normal liver radiation dose to liver function using single-photon emission computed tomography computed tomography hepatobiliary iminodiacetic acid (SPECT CT HIDA) imaging

    A regression analysis of the change in liver function from the pre- and post-procedural HIDA SPECT/CT scans (changes in %/min) as a function of the normal liver absorbed dose will be performed.

    Time frame: Up to 6 months

07

Study locations

1 site
  • M D Anderson Cancer Center
    Houston, Texas 77030, United States
08

References and documents

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on May 22, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03896646
Lead sponsor
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Collaborators
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Apr 1, 2019
Start date
Oct 10, 2019
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2026 (estimated)
Completion
Sep 30, 2026 (estimated)
Last update
May 22, 2026

Study contacts

Armeen Mahvash
principal investigator · M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in May 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion