It’s time to propose a uniform criteria for determining “clinical complete response” in hepatocellular carcinoma

In the past decade,great progress has been made in the systemic therapies of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC),represented by the target therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors(ICIs).In the Imbrave 150 trial,one in ten patients reached complete response(CR)with medical treatment alone(according to HCC-specific modified RECIST;mRECIST)(1).If different systemic regimes were combined with loco-regional therapies,the chance of achieving CR was even higher.These findings promoted the practice of conversion surgery in HCC(2,3).After tumors were converted and resected,a subgroup of HCC reached its pathological CR(pCR).Similar results were also observed in the latest pioneering trials of neoadjuvant ICIs therapies in HCC(4).