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©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Clinical outcomes of lenvatinib plus transarterial chemoembolization with or without programmed death receptor-1 inhibitors in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma
Yan-Yu Wang, Xu Yang, Yun-Chao Wang, Jun-Yu Long, Hui-Shan Sun, Yi-Ran Li, Zi-Yu Xun, Nan Zhang, Jing-Nan Xue, Cong Ning, Jun-Wei Zhang, Cheng-Pei Zhu, Long-Hao Zhang, Xiao-Bo Yang, Hai-Tao Zhao
Yan-Yu Wang, Xu Yang, Yun-Chao Wang, Jun-Yu Long, Hui-Shan Sun, Yi-Ran Li, Zi-Yu Xun, Nan Zhang, Cong Ning, Jun-Wei Zhang, Cheng-Pei Zhu, Xiao-Bo Yang, Hai-Tao Zhao, Department of Liver Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
Jing-Nan Xue, Long-Hao Zhang, Department of General Surgery, Digestive Disease Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563003, Guizhou Province, China
Author contributions: Wang YY participated in the study design and drafting of the manuscript; Yang X, Wang YC, Long JY, Sun HS, Li YR, Xun ZY, Zhang N, Xue JN and Ning C participated in data collection and statistical analysis; Zhang JW, Zhu CP, Yang XB, and Zhao HT participated in study supervision; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences, No. 2021-I2M-1-061 and 2021-I2M-1-003; Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology-Hengrui Cancer Research Fund, No. Y-HR2019-0239; Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology-MSD Cancer Research Fund, No. Y-MSDZD2021-0213; and National Ten-thousand Talent Program.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethical Review Board at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (No.SK-2000).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Hai-Tao Zhao, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Liver Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, No. 1, Shuaifuyuan, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100730, China. zhaoht@pumch.cn
Received: November 30, 2022
Peer-review started: November 30, 2022
First decision: December 20, 2022
Revised: December 24, 2022
Accepted: February 27, 2023
Article in press: February 27, 2023
Published online: March 14, 2023
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) inhibitors have been approved as second-line treatment regimen in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and it is still worth studying whether patients can benefit from PD-1 inhibitors as first-line drugs combined with targeted drugs and local therapy.
Research motivation
To provide more options and references for the therapy of patients with unresectable HCC (uHCC).
Research objectives
Aim to evaluate the clinical outcomes and safety of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and lenvatinib plus PD-1 inhibitors for patients with uHCC.
Research methods
We carried out a retrospective investigation of 65 patients with uHCC who were treated at Peking Union Medical College Hospital from September 2017 to February 2022.
Research results
Patients with uHCC who received PD-1 inhibitors, lenvatinib, TACE therapy (n = 45) had a clearly longer overall survival than those who underwent lenvatinib, TACE therapy (n = 20, 26.8 vs 14.0 mo; P = 0.027). The type and frequency of adverse events showed little difference between the two treatment groups.
Research conclusions
Our results suggest that the early combination of PD-1 inhibitors has manageable toxicity and promising efficacy in patients with uHCC.
Research perspectives
Patients with uHCC may obtain benefit a lot from the early combination of PD-1 inhibitors with TACE and lenvatinib.
