Research & Innovations

The Pitié-Salpêtrière Liver Institute is a center of excellence dedicated to the management of liver diseases, therapeutic innovation, and cutting-edge research in liver transplantation and hepatology. Our multidisciplinary teams—including surgeons, hepatologists, radiologists, anesthesiologists, and researchers—work closely together to develop innovative approaches to improve patient care.

PHRC IMMUNO-TH

Towards a new therapeutic option for patients transplanted for recurrent liver cancer

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), an aggressive form of liver cancer, is the main indication for liver transplantation in France. Despite this transplant, approximately 1 in 10 patients experience a recurrence of the disease within five years of transplantation. These recurrences are often severe, associated with the presence of metastases, and the average survival after their onset is only 12 months.

To date, available treatments in these situations (such as targeted therapies called tyrosine kinase inhibitors) have been poorly effective and poorly tolerated. Newer treatments, called immunotherapies, have shown promising results in other cases of HCC, but have never been tested in liver transplant patients due to a potential risk of transplant rejection.

The IMMUNO-TH project, led by Dr. Allaire and Professor Conti, aims to answer this important question: can immunotherapy be used in liver transplant patients with recurrent HCC, without increasing the risk of rejection?


  • What does the study consist of?

    This is a national clinical trial involving 59 liver transplant patients with advanced HCC. These patients will receive a combination of two drugs already available in France: atezolizumab and bevacizumab. To limit the risk of rejection, all patients will also receive a standardized, carefully adjusted immunosuppressive treatment.


  • What are the objectives?

    • Primarily, to verify that this treatment is safe, that is to say that it does not cause an excessive number of graft rejections.
    • Secondly, to evaluate its effectiveness on survival, quality of life and cancer progression.
    • Finally, additional analyses will be carried out to identify markers in the blood which could make it possible in the future to predict which patients will respond best to this treatment.

  • Why is this project important?

    This is the first trial in France (and one of the first in the world) to seek access to immunotherapy for liver transplant patients with recurrent HCC. It could improve their life expectancy and quality of life, while providing solid data to guide physicians in their future prescriptions.


Clinical studies

Our institute conducts numerous clinical studies aimed at optimizing diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in liver diseases and liver transplantation.



Among our current projects:

  • Optimization of perioperative strategies in liver transplantation**: improvement of anesthetic and resuscitation management to reduce postoperative complications.
  • Innovative approaches in liver graft preservation**: exploring the benefits of normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) combined with cellular and vesicular therapies to improve graft viability.
  • ELIPTO-2 study: international multicenter study (8 centers) Canada-France aiming to better characterize the risk factors for the occurrence of complications in the first week post-liver transplantation (LT).
  • HEMOTRANSPLANT study: a multicenter, prospective cohort study aimed at analyzing transfusion data per liver transplantation and identifying predictive risk factors for hemorrhage and blood transfusion.
  • SOLITOF study: study aimed at establishing a prognostic score for post-TH survival in patients with ACLF (severe decompensated cirrhosis).
  • TH-NEURO study: study aimed at characterizing post-TH neurological complications and identifying their perioperative risk factors in order to better prevent them.
  • TH-NAD study: study aimed at identifying the main immediate postoperative severity indicators in order to alert the resuscitation specialist to the potential need to consider sepsis or active hemorrhage requiring rapid specific management in the hours following liver transplantation.
  • RAPID-HCC Study: The center's participation in this study, which evaluates the transplantation of an auxiliary partial liver in patients with liver cancer
  • TRANSRADS-01 Study: Study of stereotactic radiotherapy as a waiting treatment in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma on the liver transplant waiting list
  • Estella Study: Evaluation of an Artificial Intelligence Algorithm to Predict Liver Graft Steatosis from a Photo
  • LIVERBASE Study: Collection of anonymous data from liver surgery patients to assess the impact of surgical techniques and strategies
  • B WELL 2 - GSK/HBV: Study of Bepirovirsen, an experimental treatment, aimed at eliminating the hepatitis B virus by targeting its genetic material, to help the immune system control the infection
  • UNVEIL-GENFIT / Versantis ACLF: Study of nitazoxanide, an experimental treatment, for patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure, aimed at improving liver function and survival.
  • INT787-201 FRESH(INTERCEPT - Alcoholic Hepatitis: Evaluation of a new drug, INT-787, targeting a specific liver receptor, to treat severe alcoholic hepatitis, a serious inflammation of the liver linked to alcohol.
  • GS-EU-589-6575 – GILEAD-VHD: European study evaluating the long-term efficacy of bulevirtide in patients with chronic hepatitis D.
  • IP CURE-B – VHB ANRS: Study aimed at evaluating the capacity of bepirovirsen to induce a functional cure of hepatitis B, in addition to existing antiviral treatments.
  • INT-747-213 – INTERCEPT-CSP: Evaluation of a drug targeting a liver-specific receptor to treat primary sclerosing cholangitis, a rare disease of the biliary tract


Clinical trials in progress – Liver pathologies


Liver vascular diseases


  • APIS Protocol: Randomized multicenter study evaluating the efficacy of apixaban (anticoagulant) versus placebo in patients with intrahepatic portal hypertension unrelated to cirrhosis.


  • Hepatic adenomas - JAKIH protocol: Phase 2 clinical trial (open), evaluating the effect of targeted treatment with JAK1/2 inhibitors in patients with an inflammatory hepatocellular adenoma larger than 5 cm.


  • Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) - FASTTRACK protocol: Study on the effectiveness and cost of systematic “fast-MRI” liver MRI monitoring for early detection of HCC in high-risk patients.


  • PRODIGE 81 Protocol – Triplet CHC: Randomized phase II/III trial evaluating the addition of ipilimumab to the atezolizumab-bevacizumab combination in patients with CHC in first-line systemic treatment.


  • ABC-HCC protocol: Randomized multicenter study comparing two first-line strategies in intermediate or advanced HCC: locoregional treatment (chemoembolization, TACE) versus immunotherapy (atezolizumab bevacizumab).


  • DUMELEP protocol: Phase 2 trial evaluating the durvalumab/tremelimumab combination in neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment in patients treated by electroporation (curative ablation) of HCC.



Cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer)


  • RIS-TH Protocol (PHRC): Study evaluating the benefit of liver transplantation in locally advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas, after selective internal radiotherapy (Yttrium 90).

Basic research

Our research focuses on innovative approaches to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms of liver damage and develop new therapeutic strategies:


  1. Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicle (EV) or exosome (MSC-EV) therapies**
  2. Study of the protective effects of MSC-EVs on ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury in liver transplantation.
  3. Development of immortalized MSCs (hTERT-MSCs) for optimized and standardized production of MSC-EVs for therapeutic purposes (HepaTERTize project, winner of ANR PRC-E funding in collaboration with the start-up EVerZom).
  4. Immune modulation and inflammation in severe liver diseases
  5. Analysis of the impact of immunomodulatory treatments on regulatory and effector cells in acute liver failure and ACLF.
  6. RHU AUGMENTREG: development of “augmented” immune cells to reduce the use of anti-rejection drugs in organ transplants
  7. Study of the effect of injecting drugs to reduce the fat content in liver grafts by machine perfusion (defatting)
  8. Study of alternatives to banked blood for perfusing organs on machines (Oxymar Study)
  9. Study of explanted livers perfused on a machine to model new anticancer treatments
  10. CELL-CO study: collection of anonymous data and surgical tissue from patients operated on for liver tumors to better understand tumor mechanisms and responses to treatments at the cellular and molecular level
  11. PEPTIDE Study: Collection of anonymous data and surgical tissue from patients operated on for liver tumors to better understand tumor mechanisms and responses to peptide treatments

Towards personalized medicine

Through an approach integrating clinical and basic research, the Pitié-Salpêtrière Liver Institute is committed to developing personalized strategies to optimize patient outcomes. Our work is conducted in collaboration with academic institutes, industrial partners, and biotechnology startups to accelerate innovation and the implementation of new therapies.