On November 13, 2025 Delcath Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: DCTH), ("Delcath" or the "Company") an interventional oncology company focused on the treatment of primary and metastatic liver cancers, reported the publication of results from a retrospective analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Tubingen, Germany. The study, titled "Characterization of long-term survivors with liver metastases from uveal melanoma diagnosed between 2005 and 2021," was published in the International Journal of Cancer and highlights the potential benefits of early use of liver-directed therapies, including chemosaturation (also known as percutaneous hepatic perfusion or PHP), in achieving long-term survival for patients with metastatic uveal melanoma (mUM) and liver metastases. The analysis underscores PHP’s advantages in disease control compared to other therapies, supporting its early integration potentially ahead of systemic options or in combination with systemic therapies.
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The retrospective analysis evaluated 167 patients with mUM who developed liver metastases between 2005 and 2021, focusing on the 33 long-term survivors (20% of the cohort) who lived three or more years following the initial diagnosis of liver metastases. Key findings include:
The majority of long-term survivors (82%) received liver-directed therapy as their first-line treatment in the metastatic setting
90% of long-term survivors received at least one liver-directed therapy at any time, with 85% also receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) at some point
In patients who received first line liver-specific therapy, response evaluation showed a disease control rate of 93% (complete response, partial response, or stable disease) versus 63% for patients who received first line systemic therapy
52% percent of long-term survivors received PHP at any time point, achieving a median overall survival of 37.35 months and progression-free survival of 10.28 months
"The retrospective analysis from the University of Tubingen provides compelling real-world evidence supporting the early integration of liver-directed therapies such as PHP into the treatment of metastatic uveal melanoma. This potentially contributes to long-term survival in a disease with historically poor outcomes-particularly through PHP’s demonstrated 100% disease control rate when used as first line liver-specific therapy, outperforming other options," said Gerard Michel, Chief Executive Officer of Delcath Systems. "Building on the positive results from the CHOPIN trial, which demonstrated significant improvements in progression-free and overall survival when combining PHP with immune checkpoint inhibitors in first-line treatment of patients with metastatic uveal melanoma, the results reinforce the value of HEPZATO KIT and CHEMOSAT as foundational components of multimodal treatment strategies, including initiating PHP as part of a first line treatment strategy that includes immune checkpoint inhibitors."
Notably, all patients (100%) who received PHP as their first liver-directed therapy achieved disease control, with 69% experiencing partial tumor response – demonstrating superior efficacy compared to other liver-directed therapies.
The authors highlight the combination of PHP for hepatic metastases control and ICI for extrahepatic metastases control appears reasonable and shows association with better outcomes, with 15 patients in the cohort of long-term survivors receiving both therapies. They suggest initiating PHP first in multimodal strategies to potentially enhance ICI efficacy, especially given the liver’s role in inducing tumor immune tolerance to ICI therapy.
The study utilized chemosaturation with Delcath’s CHEMOSAT Hepatic Delivery System, which employs the same proprietary technology as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved HEPZATO KIT (HEPZATO (melphalan) for Injection/Hepatic Delivery System). This analysis builds on prior publications from the same research group, including Wiens et al. (2024) in Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology, which reported significantly improved melanoma-specific survival (28 months) with first-line liver-directed therapies compared to systemic therapies (10 months), and a poster presentation by Laukhuf et al. at the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) Congress in April 2025, which initially characterized long-term survivors in this cohort.
(Press release, Delcath Systems, NOV 13, 2025, View Source [SID1234659897])