Lorenza Rimassa

Lorenza Rimassa has a long-standing interest in the field of clinical and translational research for gastrointestinal cancers. She is principal investigator and member of the steering committee, data monitoring committee for national and international, phase 1–3 clinical and translational trials of new drugs and biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma/biliary tract cancer. She is speaker, chair, discussant, and member of the organizing and scientific committee at national and international congresses.
She has authored more than 200 articles on the development of new treatments and biomarkers for hepatobiliary cancer. She is an author of the ESMO Guideline on Biliary Tract Cancer, a member of the Italian Inter-Society Guideline Writing Committee on Hepatocellular Carcinoma, of ESMO, ASCO, EASL, ILCA, and AIOM.
She is Associate Editor for Journal of Hepatology, Section Editor-in-Chief for the Disease Biomarker Section of Journal of Personalized Medicine, and an editorial board member of several journals including JHEP Reports, Liver International, Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology, Cancers, and Journal of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Main research fields

• Systemic treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma
• Systemic treatment for cholangiocarcinoma / biliary tract cancer
• Systemic treatment for pancreatic cancer
• Development of new anticancer drugs, including immunotherapy and molecularly targeted agents
• Prognostic and predictive biomarkers
• Molecular profiling
• Multidisciplinary management of hepatopancreatobiliary cancer
• Development of national and international guidelines for hepatobiliary cancer

1. Rimassa L, Assenat E, Peck-Radosavljevic M, Pracht M, Zagonel V, Mathurin P, Rota-Caremoli E, Porta C, Daniele B, Bolondi L, Mazzaferro V, Harris W, Damjanov N, Pastorelli D, Reig M, Knox J, Negri F, Trojan J, López López C, Personeni N, Decaens T, Dupuy M, Sieghart W, Abbadessa G, Schwartz B, Lamar M, Goldberg T, Shuster D, Santoro A, Bruix J. Tivantinib for second-line treatment of MET-high, advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (METIV-HCC): a final analysis of a phase 3, randomised, placebo-controlled study. Lancet Oncol. 2018 May;19(5):682-693. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(18)30146-3. Epub 2018 Apr 3.
2. Rimassa L*, Kelley RK, Meyer T, Ryoo B-Y, Merle P, Park J-W, Blanc J-F, Lim HY, Tran A, Chan Y-W, McAdam P, Wang E, Cheng A-L, El-Khoueiry AB, Abou-Alfa GK. Outcomes Based on Plasma Biomarkers for the Phase 3 CELESTIAL Trial of Cabozantinib versus Placebo in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Liver Cancer. Published online: December 3, 2021. doi: 10.1159/000519867. *Corresponding author
3. D’Alessio A, Fulgenzi CAM, Nishida N, Schönlein M, von Felden J, Schulze K, Wege H, Gaillard VE, Saeed A, Wietharn B, Hildebrand H, Wu L, Ang C, Marron TU, Weinmann A, Galle PR, Bettinger D, Bengsch B, Vogel A, Balcar L, Scheiner B, Lee PC, Huang YH, Amara S, Muzaffar M, Naqash AR, Cammarota A, Personeni N, Pressiani T, Sharma R, Pinter M, Cortellini A, Kudo M, Rimassa L*, Pinato DJ*. Preliminary evidence of safety and tolerability of atezolizumab plus bevacizumab in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and Child-Pugh A and B cirrhosis: a real-world study. Hepatology. 2022 Mar 21. doi: 10.1002/hep.32468. Online ahead of print. *Equal contribution
4. Kelley RK*, Rimassa L*, Cheng AL, Kaseb A, Qin S, Zhu AX, Chan SL, Melkadze T, Sukeepaisarnjaroen W, Breder V, Verset G, Gane E, Borbath I, Rangel JDG, Ryoo BY, Makharadze T, Merle P, Benzaghou F, Banerjee K, Hazra S, Fawcett J, Yau T. Cabozantinib plus atezolizumab versus sorafenib for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (COSMIC-312): a multicentre, open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2022 Jul 4:S1470-2045(22)00326-6. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00326-6. Online ahead of print. *Equal contribution
5. Yau T, Kaseb A, Cheng AL, Qin S, Zhu AX, Chan SL, Melkadze T, Sukeepaisarnjaroen W, Breder V, Verset G, Gane E, Borbath I, Rangel JDG, Ryoo BY, Makharadze T, Merle P, Benzaghou F, Milwee S, Wang Z, Curran D, Kelley RK*, Rimassa L*. Cabozantinib plus atezolizumab versus sorafenib for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (COSMIC-312): final results of a randomised phase 3 study. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2024 Feb 13:S2468-1253(23)00454-5. doi: 10.1016/S2468-1253(23)00454-5. Online ahead of print. *Equal contribution