Can a Pre-Surgery immune boost stop liver Cancer's return?

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * All adult patients undergoing liver resection for HCC at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), with prior informed and signed consent. * Patients of childbearing age must be willing to use a contraception at the day of inclusion and for at least 5 months after the last infusion. * Negative pregnancy test at inclusion * Patients will require to be eligible for surgical resection according to the BCLC guidelines (very early to early stage with preserved liver function and good patient condition) (4). * The control group will include data from the patients in our ongoing research project (study protocol 2023-02372), undergoing liver resection without prior ICI therapy (n = 30). Exclusion Criteria: * Patients who do not ultimately undergo liver resection due to unforeseen reasons (this happens rarely, such as in the presence of unexpected HCC progression discovered during surgery). * Patients with an ongoing pregnancy (an unlikely event, as non-surgical HCC treatments would be prioritized in such cases). * Patients unable to follow procedures due to language barriers, insufficient comprehension of project language, or unable to give consent. * Patients \<18 years. * Patients with medical history of allergy or severe AEs to ICI therapy * Pregnant and/or breastfeeding women. Lactating women should stop lactation or will be excluded from the study as breastfeeding under atezolizumab is not recommended. Furthermore, breastfeeding is not recommended for at least 5 months after the last dose. * Immunosuppressed patients and patients with haematological disorder leading to a deficient immunity * Patients with hepatic and/or cardiovascular deficiencies that contra-indicate surgery. Compensated cirrhotic patients are expected and will be included in the study as no dosage modification of the atezolizumab is required for these patients. * Patients who received a live or attenuated vaccine in the last 28 days before inclusion in the study. * Patients with untreated Hepatitis B and/or C or HIV. HIV patients under treatment with normal CD4 counts can be included. Hepatitis B and/or C patients under antiviral therapies can be included. * Patients with history of inflammatory pneumopathy, active brain metastasis and patients treated with a systemic immunotherapy in the last 6 months. * Patients under steroid treatment during the inclusion will be excluded.