An interventional study of Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) in Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Liver Cancer, sponsored by UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-04.
Sponsored by UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Diagnostic
The purpose of this study is to find out whether a special type of magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI), called blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) MRI, can help measure how much oxygen is present in liver tumors. Tumors with low oxygen levels are described as being hypoxic.
Yttrium-90 (Y-90) is a type of radioactive material used to treat liver tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a type of liver cancer. Y-90 is a form of radiation treatment delivered directly to liver tumors through tiny beads carried by blood vessels. These beads release radiation that damages and kills cancer cells while helping limit radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. This treatment is also called Y-90 radioembolization or selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT).
The study will include 12 patients with liver tumors confirmed by biopsy to be hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a type of liver cancer, who are scheduled to receive Y-90 selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT), a treatment that delivers radiation directly to the tumor through blood vessels. Before treatment, participants will undergo a research MRI scan. A sample of their previously biopsied tumor tissue will also be examined in the laboratory to measure signs of low oxygen levels. The researchers will compare the MRI findings with the tissue results to determine whether BOLD MRI can reliably assess oxygen levels in liver tumors and may help predict how well the tumors respond to Y-90 treatment.
Standard-of-care Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCE MRI) will be performed separately according to routine clinical practice before and after the Y90-SIRT procedure. BOLD MRI will be performed on a separate day after the pre-SIRT DCE MRI.
3,648 studies on the registry are indexed under Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; 1,061 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 12 is below the median of 54 across 2,618 interventional studies indexed under Carcinoma, Hepatocellular.
Browse Carcinoma, Hepatocellular studies →UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center is the lead sponsor of 429 studies on the registry; 97 are open to participants now.
Of its 33 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 26 (79%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
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.
Subjects must meet all the inclusion criteria to participate in this study.
Exclusion Criteria:
All subjects meeting any of the exclusion criteria at baseline will be excluded from study participation.
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.
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
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.
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.
A 0–100 scale of how well someone can carry out everyday activities. 100 is no complaints and no signs of illness; 70 is able to look after yourself but not to work or keep up normal activity; 50 is needing considerable help and frequent medical care.
Studies often ask for 60 or 70 and above. Your doctor gives the score.
The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.
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.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Biopsy and archival tissue
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Karnofsky performance status (KPS)
A 0–100 scale of how well someone can carry out everyday activities. 100 is no complaints and no signs of illness; 70 is able to look after yourself but not to work or keep up normal activity; 50 is needing considerable help and frequent medical care.
Studies often ask for 60 or 70 and above. Your doctor gives the score.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Life expectancy
The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Metastases
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who are scheduled to receive Y-90 selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT),
Diagnostic Test: Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI)
BOLD MRI will include 2D and 3D multi-echo gradient-echo sequences covering the liver, using body phased-array coils and breath-hold techniques. Imaging parameters may be adjusted as needed to optimize tumor visualization while maintaining data quality.
The number of successful novel blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
The number of successful novel blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method for evaluating the level of tumor tissue hypoxia in patients with liver tumors.
Time frame: Baseline
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) hypoxia classification based on blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Calculation of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) hypoxia classification.
Time frame: Baseline
Plan to share: No
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Oct 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions 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.
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center →