SH-LPS System in Preoperative Planning for Liver Resection

University of Chinese Academy Sciences

Status and phase: Not yet enrolling; Phase 3; Phase 2

Conditions: 3D Printing; Preoperative Planning; Liver Tumor; Surgery

Treatments: Device: 3D printed models; Other: CT or MRI image

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06911086

IRB-2025-27（IIT）

Details and patient eligibility

About

Effective preoperative planning and real-time intraoperative guidance are crucial for performing accurate liver resections. To address this need, the researchers have designed advanced 3D-printed liver models using a self-healing elastomer, created through the copolymerization of 4-acryloylmorpholine (ACMO) and methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) acrylate (mPEGA). These models demonstrate outstanding healing properties, swiftly restoring their structure within minutes at room temperature, and quickly recovering after incisions.

In previous studies, Professor Yuhua Zhang, the project applicant, collaborated with a team from Zhejiang University to develop a 3D-printed liver model that is self-healing and reusable for repeated cutting. They preliminarily explored the feasibility of applying this model for preoperative planning and surgical training for liver surgeries. The results were published in Nature Communications (Lu et al., Nat Commun. Dec 19;14(1):8447). Building on this, the applicant intends to establish a personalized liver surgery planning system (Personalized Liver Surgery Planning System Based on High-Fidelity 3D Printed Self-Healing Liver Models, SH-LPS), which will assess, through a randomized controlled trial, the value of SH-LPS in improving liver surgery efficiency and safety.

Enrollment: 100 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 80 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 18-80 years old;
• Patients with a resectable tumor in the liver;
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance status score: 0;
• Child-Pugh classification: A;
• The Laboratory test results meet the following criteria and patients can tolerate surgery: Haemoglobin≥90g/L, Neutrophil count≥1.5×10⁹/L, Platelet count≥100×10⁹/L, Aspartate or alanine aminotransferase≤5 upper limits of normal(ULN）, alkaline phosphatase≤2.5 ULN, Serum albumin≥30g/L, serum creatinine<1.5 ULN, International normalized ratios（INR）≤2 or rothrombin time（PT）exceed ULN≤6s, Creatinine clearance≥60 mL/min.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients with extra-hepatic metastasis;
• Anti-cancer therapy or surgery such as radiotherapy, radiofrequency ablation in 28 days prior to the surgery;
• Clinically significant bleeding or bleeding tendencies within 3 months prior to enrollment or on thrombolytic or anticoagulant therapy;
• Severe lung disease (eg, acute lung disease, pulmonary fibrosis that affects lung function, interstitial lung disease), uncontrolled diabetes mellitus (fasting blood glucose ≥10 mmol/L);
• There are other unsuitable candidates for clinical trials, such as mental illness or alcohol dependence.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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100 participants in 2 patient groups

3D group

Experimental group

Description:

A three-dimensional digital model is constructed based on the patient's CT/MRI data and a physical model is printed. Using the model's self-healing property after cutting, multiple simulated surgeries are performed to help plan the optimal surgical approach. The best surgical path derived from the model is combined with traditional CT/MRI data to determine the final surgical path, and the surgery is then performed according to this finalized path.

Treatment:

Device: 3D printed models

CT/MRI group

Sham Comparator group

Description:

The surgical approach is planned based on traditional two-dimensional CT/MRI images, and the surgery is performed according to this planned path.

Treatment:

Other: CT or MRI image