ClinicalTrials.gg
Not yet recruitingNCT07297654FINELANDUpdated Jan 7, 2026

First-Line Lenvatinib in Child-Pugh B Patients With HCC Unsuitable for Curative Treatment

A Phase 2 interventional study of Lenvatinib in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma, sponsored by National Cancer Center, Korea. Not yet recruiting. Open to participants aged 19 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-01-07.

Sponsored by National Cancer Center, Korea · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
50
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
19 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of lenvatinib as first-line therapy in patients with Child-Pugh class B HCC who are unsuitable for curative treatment.

Read the detailed description

\<Treatment Phase> All participants will receive lenvatinib treatment after signing informed consent. Lenvatinib will be administered orally once daily at a dose of 8 mg, at the same time each day, with or without food.

Treatment must begin within 3 days after screening and will continue until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, withdrawal of consent, or study termination, whichever occurs first.

\<Follow-up Phase> After the treatment phase, participants will be followed every 12 weeks (±7 days) after the last dose for survival status and use of subsequent anticancer therapies. Survival follow-up will be conducted for at least 12 months after enrollment of the last participant.

02

Conditions studied

  • Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Keywords

  • Lenvatinib
  • child Pugh B
03

In context

Carcinoma, Hepatocellular

3,648 studies on the registry are indexed under Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; 1,061 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 50 is close to the median of 54 across 2,618 interventional studies indexed under Carcinoma, Hepatocellular.

Browse Carcinoma, Hepatocellular studies →

Lead sponsor

National Cancer Center, Korea is the lead sponsor of 204 studies on the registry; 36 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

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

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Signed
  2. Age ≥ 19 years at the time of signing informed consent
  3. Histological or clinical diagnosis of HCC according to the Korean Liver Cancer Association-National Cancer Center guidelines
  4. HCC not amenable to curative treatment (e.g., surgical resection, local therapy, liver transplantation)
  5. At least one measurable target lesion according to v1.1

    - Participants who previously received local treatment (e.g., radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, transarterial chemoembolization, transarterial radioembolization, transarterial embolization, or radiotherapy) are eligible if (a) target lesions have not been treated by prior local therapy, or (b) lesions within the field of local therapy have subsequently progressed according to RECIST v1.1.

  6. class B7-B8
  7. performance status (PS) 0-2
  8. Adequate hematologic and end-organ function defined by the following laboratory tests obtained within 14 days prior to screening:

    • ≥ 8.0g/dL
    • (ANC) ≥ 1,000/mm3
    • count ≥ 50,000/μL
    • Total \< 3.5 mg/dL
    • Serum albumin ≥ 2.5 g/dL
    • and AST ≤ 7 x (ULN)
    • (INR ≤ 1.8 × ULN)
    • Serum creatinine ≤ 2.0 × ULN or calculated ≥ 40 mL/min (Cockcroft-Gault equation)
  9. Documented virological status for virus (HBV) and virus (HCV) by screening tests.

    - Participants with HBV or HCV infection must receive antiviral therapy in accordance with institutional guidelines.

  10. Women of must agree to remain abstinent or use effective (failure rate \< 1% per year) from signing informed consent through at least 6 months after the last study drug administration.

Men must agree to remain abstinent or use effective contraception (failure rate \< 1% per year) during the same period and refrain from sperm donation.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Fibrolamellar carcinoma or sarcomatoid carcinoma
  2. Prior systemic therapy for HCC
  3. Local therapy for HCC (including radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, cryoablation, transarterial chemoembolization, radioembolization, or radiotherapy) within 28 days prior to initiation of study treatment, or unresolved complications from such procedures

    - Palliative radiotherapy to bone lesions is permitted with a 7-day washout

  4. History of allogeneic stem cell or solid organ transplantation
  5. Active or
  6. History of another within 2 years prior to screening, except for cancers with negligible risk of or death (e.g., >90% 5-year survival)
  7. Serious uncontrolled medical comorbidities within 3 months prior to study treatment, including severe cardiovascular disease ( class ≥ II heart disease, myocardial infarction, or cerebrovascular accident), unstable arrhythmia, or unstable angina, or any condition judged by the investigator to increase participant risk
  8. Pregnant or breastfeeding women, or men and women of unwilling to use effective from screening through 6 months after the last study drug administration
  9. Any condition judged by the investigator to interfere with compliance with study procedures, restrictions, or requirements
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(23)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

RECIST

The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.

“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.

Child-Pugh class

A score of how well the liver works in people with liver disease such as cirrhosis: class A is mild, B moderate and C severe.

ECOG performance status

A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.

Hemoglobin (Hb)

The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).

Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)

The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.

It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

Bilirubin

A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.

Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)

Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.

Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.

Creatinine clearance (CrCl)

How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Washout period

A planned gap after a treatment, so that its effects can lessen before the study treatment or a study assessment. Ask the study team and the doctor who prescribed it before changing any medicine.

Brain metastases

Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).

Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.

Leptomeningeal disease

Cancer that has spread to the leptomeninges, the thin layers covering the brain and spinal cord, and the fluid between them. It is not the same as brain metastases.

Criteria often treat it separately, and many studies leave it out even where treated brain metastases are allowed.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Metastases

Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.

NYHA class (heart failure)

The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.

I
No limits: ordinary activity causes no undue tiredness or breathlessness.
II
Slight limits: comfortable at rest, ordinary activity causes symptoms.
III
Marked limits: comfortable at rest, less than ordinary activity causes symptoms.
IV
Symptoms even at rest; any activity makes them worse.

Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.

Reproductive potential

Able to have children. For women this usually means from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery; for men, unless permanently sterile. Read who the line is about — participants, women, men, or their partners.

Criteria about it usually ask for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
50 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Lenvatinib

    Lenvatinib will be administered orally once daily at a dose of 8 mg, at the same time each day, with or without food. Treatment must begin within 3 days after screening and will continue until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, withdrawal of consent, or study termination, whichever occurs first.

    Drug: Lenvatinib

Interventions

  • Lenvatinib will be administered orally at a dose of 8 mg once daily at the same time each day, with or without food (regardless of body weight). For participants with a baseline body weight ≥60 kg who tolerate lenvatinib at 8 mg once daily (i.e., experiencing only Grade 1 or lower adverse events) and have maintained this dose for at least 2 weeks, the daily dose of lenvatinib may be increased to 12 mg.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Progression-free survival (PFS)

    Progression-free survival (PFS) is defined as the time from the date of treatment initiation to the date of first documented progressive disease (PD) according to RECIST v1.1, as assessed by the investigator, or death from any cause.

    Time frame: Twelve months after the last subject is enrolled or the time at which the 41 events required to verify the assumptions used in the sample size calculation have occurred

Secondary outcomes

  1. Overall survival (OS)

    Overall survival (OS) is defined as the time from the date of treatment initiation to death from any cause.

    Time frame: Twelve months after the last subject is enrolled or the time at which the 41 events required to verify the assumptions used in the sample size calculation have occurred

  2. Time to progression (TTP)

    Time to progression (TTP) is defined as the time from the date of treatment initiation to the date of first documented progressive disease (PD) according to RECIST v1.1, as assessed by the investigator.

    Time frame: Twelve months after the last subject is enrolled or the time at which the 41 events required to verify the assumptions used in the sample size calculation have occurred.

  3. Objective response rate (ORR)

    Objective response rate (ORR) is defined as the proportion of participants whose best overall response is complete response (CR) or partial response (PR), as assessed by the investigator according to RECIST v1.1.

    Time frame: Twelve months after the last subject is enrolled or the time at which the 41 events required to verify the assumptions used in the sample size calculation have occurred.

  4. Disease control rate (DCR)

    Disease control rate (DCR) is defined as the proportion of participants whose best overall response is complete CR, PR, or stable disease (SD), as assessed by the investigator according to RECIST v1.1.

    Time frame: Twelve months after the last subject is enrolled or the time at which the 41 events required to verify the assumptions used in the sample size calculation have occurred.

  5. The incidence of AEs

    The incidence of AEs is defined as the number of all AEs occurring in participants from the first dose of the investigational product until the last follow-up visit, as well as the proportion of participants who experience them. The severity of AEs will be graded on a scale of Grade 1-5 according to the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI CTCAE), version 5.0.

    Time frame: Twelve months after the last subject is enrolled or the time at which the 41 events required to verify the assumptions used in the sample size calculation have occurred.

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Start is estimated for Feb 2026; primary completion for May 2028, 27 months later.

Of 348 non-industry phase 2 interventional studies under Carcinoma, Hepatocellular, half reached primary completion within 47 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 33 and three quarters within 78. This study's planned 27 months is below that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 428 studies reached it within 43 months; a quarter within 30 and three quarters within 71.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Dec 9, 2025
First posted
Dec 22, 2025
StartEst.
Feb 2026
Primary completionEst.
May 2028
CompletionEst.
May 2028
Last update
Jan 7, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jan 7, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07297654
Responsible party
Bo Hyun Kim (Principal Investigator, National Cancer Center, Korea) — Principal investigator
First posted
Dec 22, 2025
Start date
Feb 2026 (estimated)
Primary completion
May 2028 (estimated)
Completion
May 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Jan 7, 2026

Study contacts

Yoonsun Kim
Contact
eda0208@ncc.re.kr
+82-10-4795-4675
Bo Hyun Kim Kim, MD
principal investigator · National Cancer Center

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Jan 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.

Studies of the drug tested here: Lenvatinib

Start the discussion