Study of ThermoDox With Standardized Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) for Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC)

This is a Phase III, randomized, double blind, dummy controlled safety and efficacy study of ThermoDox plus sRFA compared to sRFA plus dummy infusion using standardized treatment dwell time for solitary HCC lesions ≥ 3.0 cm to ≤ 7.0 cm. An sRFA treatment for this protocol is defined as the dwell time of ≥ 45 minutes measured from the first activation of the RFA probe through removal of the RFA probe after the final ablation cycle or deployment.

The 50 mg/m2 ThermoDox or dummy infusion will be administered IV over 30 minutes. As part of blinded pre-medication ThermoDox treated subjects will receive 20 mg of dexamethasone orally 24 hours prior to the drug infusion for infusion reaction prophylaxis. Subjects on the control arm will receive a matching dummy pre-medication pill orally at 24 hours prior to infusion of the study treatment. Thirty minutes prior to receiving the ThermoDox infusion, subjects will receive a blinded dose of 20 mg of IV dexamethasone, 50 mg IV diphenhydramine and either 50 mg of IV ranitidine or 20 mg of IV famotidine. Subjects on the control arm will receive a masked dummy pre-medication pill orally at 24 hours prior to infusion of the study medication, and a dummy infusion 30 minutes prior to dummy infusion of Sodium Chloride 0.9% or 5% Dextrose (D5W). RFA will be initiated approximately at a minimum of 15 minutes after the initiation of study drug infusion and should be completed no later than 3 hours after study drug infusion initiation. The goal is to reach a > 45 minute dwell time which can be achieved by employing at least four ablation cycles or deployments in order to ablate the tumor as well as a 360º 1.0 cm tumor-free margin surrounding the tumor.with an estimated overall procedure time of less than 3 hours.

A subject who has an incomplete ablation is eligible for 1 retreatment procedure within 21 days after the radiological imaging exam showing residual disease at Day 28. Subjects will be retreated only once with the same RFA equipment and treatment assigned at randomization. Subjects with a complete ablation after retreatment will be followed both for PFS and for OS.

If after 2 ablations the subject has local, distant intrahepatic, or extrahepatic HCC, then the subject will be considered a treatment failure and will have met the PFS endpoint. The subject will be followed for OS every 3 months. Among subjects who are not treatment failures, five repeat treatments are permitted to treat a recurrent lesion or to treat newly-identified local or distant intrahepatic lesions at the Investigator's discretion after the PFS endpoint is reported and with agreement from the Sponsor. The subject must be eligible for retreatment consistent with the safety eligibility criteria and will be retreated with the same randomized treatment.

CT or MRI imaging will be used to assess the effectiveness of the ablation therapy. The blind will be maintained at the level of the imaging reads. Investigator determined radiological progression must be observed and recorded prior to beginning alternate treatments for HCC. Posttreatment imaging will be obtained at months 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, then every 6 months (+/- 2 weeks) until radiological progression is seen. Adverse event assessments and laboratory examinations will occur at each visit. All subjects will be monitored throughout the investigational period.

Patients that meet inclusion/exclusion criteria may be at risk for contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) when undergoing the required CT with contrast procedures. The investigators must be mindful of the risk factors associated with CIN and employ strategies to reduce the risk of CIN. In subjects with diabetes or borderline renal function (creatinine greater than 1.5 mg/dL) special precautions (e.g. hydration, contrast dose reduction, follow up creatinine determination) should be employed. An accepted procedure is adequate intravenous volume expansion with isotonic saline (1.0 - 1.5 mL/kg per hour) for 3-12 hours before the procedure and continued for 6-24 hours if clinically indicated and based on the treating physician's medical judgment.

All randomized subjects will be followed for safety and overall survival.