Delcath Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:DCTH) saw its shares rise 2.2% in premarket trading Thursday after new research underscored the potential survival benefits of its liver-targeted treatment for metastatic uveal melanoma.
A retrospective analysis published in the International Journal of Cancer examined 167 patients diagnosed with metastatic uveal melanoma who later developed liver metastases between 2005 and 2021. The study focused on 33 long-term survivors who lived at least three years after diagnosis. Of that group, 82% received a liver-directed therapy as their initial treatment, and more than half — 52% — were treated at some stage with Delcath’s percutaneous hepatic perfusion (PHP) approach.
The findings were particularly notable among patients who used PHP as their first liver-directed therapy. Every one of those individuals achieved disease control, and 69% registered a partial response, a performance that surpassed other available liver-directed options. Median overall survival for PHP reached 37.35 months, with median progression-free survival of 10.28 months.
The analysis was conducted using Delcath’s CHEMOSAT Hepatic Delivery System, which employs the same core technology as the company’s FDA-approved HEPZATO KIT. The researchers said the data supports the idea that initiating liver-directed treatment early — either as an alternative to or in combination with systemic therapies — may help improve long-term outcomes for this notoriously aggressive cancer.
These results reinforce earlier studies showing that patients who begin with liver-directed therapy achieve substantially longer melanoma-specific survival (28 months) compared with those treated first with systemic therapy (10 months).