Treatment Options for HCC Patients Not Eligible for or Progressed on Immunotherapy

Timon Vandamme is a Senior Consultant in digestive and neuroendocrine oncology at the Antwerp University Hospital. As a clinician-researcher, he is performing research in circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) in digestive and neuroendocrine neoplasms.

Dr Vandamme obtained a joint PhD at the University of Antwerp, Belgium and the Erasmus MC, the Netherlands, on preclinical and translation evaluation of everolimus resistance and pancreatic NET genomics. His PhD project has led to multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals and received numerous awards, both national and international. Currently, he is holder of a Senior Clinical Investigator (FKM) grant of the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) at the University of Antwerp.

Furthermore, he is the Principal Investigator (PI) of > 10 trials at the University Hospital Antwerp, both industry-sponsored and academic trials. He is promotor of four PhD students and mentor of two additional PhD students. He has authored numerous papers outside his PhD in journals such as Clinical Cancer Research and Lancet Oncology. He has peer-reviewed for different high-impact journals and is a member of the editorial board of Endocrine-Related Cancer.

He is currently acting secretary of the Dutch Belgian Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (DBNETS) and co-opted board member of the Belgian Group of Digestive Oncology (BGDO). In addition, he is active member of the EORTC GI Tract Cancer Group and the ENETS Translational Working Group.

Dr Changhoon Yoo is a medical oncologist who specialises in the care of patients with gastrointestinal cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma. He is an Assistant Professor at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea. Dr Yoo obtained his medical degree at the University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea and completed post graduate training at Asan Medical Center. He has participated in multiple clinical trials and translational research for the development of novel agents for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. His research initiatives include the integration of novel targeted and immune-based therapy into the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. Relevant publications Kim HD, Song GW, Park S, Jung MK, Kim MH, Kang HJ, Yoo C, Yi K, Kim KH, Eo S, Moon DB, Hong SM, Ju YS, Shin EC, Hwang S, Park SH. Association Between Expression Level of PD1 by Tumor-Infiltrating CD8+ T Cells and Features of Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Gastroenterology 2018 Aug 23; pii: S0016-5085(18)34897-2. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2018.08.030. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 30145359 Yoo C, Kang J, Lim HY, Kim JH, Lee MA, Lee KH, Kim TY, Ryoo BY. Phase I Dose-Finding Study of OPB-111077, a Novel STAT3 Inhibitor, in Patients with Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Cancer Res Treat 2018 Jun 13. doi: 10.4143/crt.2018.226. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 29898591 
Chae H, Cho H, Yoo C, Kim KP, Jeong JH, Chang HM, Kang J, Lee HC, Lim YS, Kim KM, Shim JH, Lee SS, Park DH, Song TJ, Hwang S, Song GW, Moon DB, Lee YJ, Lee JH, Ryoo BY. Prognostic implications of hepatitis B virus infection in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma treated with first-line gemcitabine plus cisplatin. Int J Biol Markers 2018 Jun 1:1724600818777239. doi: 10.1177/1724600818777239. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 29874985 
Cho H, Yoo C, Kim KP, Jeong JH, Kang J, Chang HM, Lee SS, Park DH, Song TJ, Lee SK, Kim MH, Lee HC, Lim YS, Kim KM, Shim JH, Hwang S, Song GW, Moon DB, Lee JH, Lee YJ, Ryoo BY. Prognostic Implication of Inflammation-based Prognostic Scores in Patients with Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Treated with First-line Gemcitabine plus Cisplatin. Invest New Drugs 2018 Jun;36(3):496-502. doi: 10.1007/s10637-017-0548-7. Epub 2017 Dec 1. PMID: 29192354 Yoo C, Kang J, Kim D, Kim KP, Ryoo BY, Hong SM, Hwang JJ, Jeong SY, Hwang S, Kim KH, Lee YJ, Hoeflich KP, Schmidt-Kittler O, Miller S, Choi EK. Multiplexed gene expression profiling identifies the FGFR4 pathway as a novel biomarker in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Oncotarget 2017 Jun 13;8(24):38592-38601. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.16951.