scholarly journals Molecular Targets, Pathways, and Therapeutic Implications for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 5232
Author(s):  
Jun Gong ◽  
Jeremy Chuang ◽  
May Cho ◽  
Kyra Toomey ◽  
Andrew Hendifar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Targeted Therapies ◽  
Cancer Mortality ◽  
Molecular Targets ◽  
Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Advanced Hcc ◽  
Therapeutic Implications ◽  
The Past ◽  
Selection Of

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents one of the leading causes of cancer mortality worldwide. While significant advances have been made for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in the past few years, the prognosis remains poor and effective biomarkers to guide selection of therapies remain noticeably absent. However, several targeted therapies have been approved in the past few years that have improved the outlook for this disease. In this review, we will highlight the recent therapies approved for the treatment of advanced HCC and discuss promising therapeutic options, targets, and pathways for drug development and consideration for future clinical trials.

scholarly journals Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors as Monotherapy or Within a Combinatorial Strategy in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (17) ◽  
pp. 6302
Author(s):  
Michela Guardascione ◽  
Giuseppe Toffoli
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Immune Checkpoint ◽  
Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors ◽  
Kinase Inhibitors ◽  
Checkpoint Inhibitors ◽  
Target Therapy ◽  
Antiangiogenic Agents ◽  
Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Advanced Hcc

In advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), systemic treatment represents the standard therapy. Target therapy has marked a new era based on a greater knowledge of molecular disease signaling. Nonetheless, survival outcomes and long-term response remain unsatisfactory, mostly because of the onset of primary or acquired resistance. More recently, results from clinical trials with immune targeting agents, such as the immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), have shown a promising role for these drugs in the treatment of advanced HCC. In the context of an intrinsic tolerogenic liver environment, since HCC-induced immune tolerance, it is supported by multiple immunosuppressive mechanisms and several clinical trials are now underway to evaluate ICI-based combinations, including their associations with antiangiogenic agents or multikinase kinase inhibitors and multiple ICIs combinations. In this review, we will first discuss the basic principles of hepatic immunogenic tolerance and the evasive mechanism of antitumor immunity in HCC; furthermore we will elucidate the consistent biological rationale for immunotherapy in HCC even in the presence of an intrinsic tolerogenic environment. Subsequently, we will critically report and discuss current literature on ICIs in the treatment of advanced HCC, including a focus on the currently explored combinatorial strategies and their rationales. Finally, we will consider both challenges and future directions in this field.

scholarly journals Targeted Therapies in the Treatment of Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. CMO.S7633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengyu Wei ◽  
Cataldo Doria ◽  
Yuan Liu
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Targeted Therapies ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
Systemic Treatment ◽  
Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Advanced Hcc ◽  
The Third ◽  
Promising Target ◽  
Targeted Treatments ◽  
Attractive Option

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common liver cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death. It has been a major worldwide health problem with more new cases being diagnosed each year. The current available therapies for patients with advanced HCC are extremely limited. Therefore, it is of great clinical interests to develop more effective therapies for systemic treatment of advanced HCC. Several promising target-based drugs have been tested in a number of clinical trials. One breakthrough of these efforts is the approved clinical use of sorafenib in patients with advanced HCC. Targeted therapies are becoming an attractive option for the treatment of advanced HCC. In this review, we summarize the most recent progress in clinical targeted treatments of advanced HCC.

scholarly journals Overview of Current Progress in Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy for Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 153303382094748
Author(s):  
Xinlun Dai ◽  
Shupeng Wang ◽  
Chunyuan Niu ◽  
Bai Ji ◽  
Yahui Liu
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Immune Checkpoint ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Checkpoint Inhibitors ◽  
Immune Checkpoint Blockade ◽  
Immune Checkpoints ◽  
Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Advanced Hcc ◽  
Inhibitory Signaling

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains to a common cause of tumor mortality worldwide and represents the most common type of lethal hepatic malignancy. The incidence of HCC is swiftly increasing in western countries and southeast Asia. Despite poor prognosis, traditional treatments for advanced HCC appear to be minimally effective or even useless since patients are usually diagnosed in the advanced stage of disease. In recent years, immune checkpoint blockade has shown promising results in multiple pre-clinical and clinical trials of different solid tumors, including advanced HCC. Novel drugs targeting immune checkpoints, such as nivolumab (anti-PD-1), durvalumab (anti-PD-L1), and tremelimumab (anti-CTLA-4) have been shown to be highly effective and relatively safe in monotherapy or in combination treatment of advanced liver cancer. Unlike other immunotherapies, this approach can rouse human anti-tumor immunity by relieving T-cell exhaustion and inhibiting the evasion of HCC by blocking co-inhibitory signaling transduction accurately. In this review, we will provide current knowledge of several major immune checkpoints and summarize recent data from clinical trials that applied immune checkpoint inhibitors alone or in combination. In addition, this review will discuss the limitations and future prospective of immune checkpoint-targeted therapy for advanced HCC.

scholarly journals Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Molecular Mechanisms and Targeted Therapies

Medicina ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (9) ◽  
pp. 526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alqahtani ◽  
Khan ◽  
Alloghbi ◽  
Said Ahmed ◽  
Ashraf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Targeted Therapies ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Malignant Tumors ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Advanced Hcc ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Clinical Benefits ◽  
Approved Drugs

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and lethal malignant tumors worldwide. HCC is a complex process that is associated with several etiological factors, which in turn result in aberrant activation of different cellular and molecular pathways and the disruption of balance between activation and inactivation of protooncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, respectively. Since HCC most often occurs in the setting of a diseased or cirrhotic liver and most of the patients are diagnosed at the late stage of disease, prognosis is generally poor. At present, limited treatment options with marginal clinical benefits are available. Systemic therapy, particularly in the form of conventional cytotoxic drugs, are generally ineffective. In recent years, molecular-targeted therapies have been clinically used to treat various cancers, including liver cancer. This approach inhibits the growth of tumor cells by interfering with molecules that are involved in carcinogenesis, which makes it more selective and specific than cytotoxic chemotherapy. Many clinical trials have been carried out while using molecular targeted drugs in advanced HCC with many more in progress. The clinical trials in HCC to date have evaluated a single-targeted therapy alone, or two or more targeted therapies in parallel. The aim of this review is to provide insight of various molecular mechanisms, leading to HCC development and progression, and also the range of experimental therapeutics for patients with advanced HCC. The review will summarize different clinical trials data the successes and failures of these treatments, as well as the most effective and approved drugs designed against HCC.

Surrogate endpoint in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma treated with molecular targeted therapy: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 454-454
Author(s):  
Kyung-Hun Lee ◽  
Dae-Won Lee ◽  
Myoung-Jin Jang ◽  
Tae-Yong Kim ◽  
Sae-Won Han ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Targeted Therapy ◽  
Molecular Targeted Therapy ◽  
Treatment Effects ◽  
Phase Iii ◽  
Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Advanced Hcc ◽  
Incremental Benefit ◽  
Randomized Controlled

454 Background: Time to progression (TTP) is suggested as a reliable endpoint compared to progression free survival (PFS) in the clinical trials of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the correlation between TTP and overall survival (OS) has never been studied. Methods: We searched Pubmed and Embase data to obtain data source. Eligible studies were randomized controlled phase III trials which evaluated the efficacy of systemic chemotherapy or molecular targeted therapy in advanced HCC. The association of treatment effects as shown by the hazard ratio (HR) of TTP and OS in each trial was assessed by Spearman rank correlation coefficient ( rs) and linear regression analysis. The association between median TTP and OS was also investigated. Results: Nine studies with a total of 18 treatment arms and 6318 patients were included. Incremental benefit from the study treatment in TTP from each trial was correlated with incremental benefit in OS. The rs value and R2 value between log (HRTTP) and log (HROS) was 0.73 (95% CI 0.12 – 0.94, p = 0.024) and 0.57. The minimum TTP effect to predict a treatment effect on OS was 0.63. Median TTP was associated with median OS. The rs value between TTP and OS was 0.73 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.40 – 0.89, p < 0.001) and the corresponding R2 was 0.42. Conclusions: Our study results suggest that TTP could be used as a surrogate marker for OS in the clinical trials of advanced HCC. However, the results suggest modest correlation between treatment effects on TTP and OS. Along with individual-level analysis more evidences are needed to confirm our finding.

Prognostic factors of survival in 236 advanced hepatocellular carcinoma patients enrolled in prospective clinical trials of systemic therapy

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e15632-e15632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Lin ◽  
D. Chang ◽  
Y. Shao ◽  
C. Hsu ◽  
C. Hsu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Overall Survival ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Prognostic Factors ◽  
Systemic Therapy ◽  
Objective Response ◽  
Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Phase Ii Trials ◽  
Advanced Hcc ◽  
Staging Systems

e15632 Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant disease. Promising results of prospective clinical trials using systemic therapy for patients with advanced HCC are emerging. The aim of this study was to explore prognostic factors of survival in advanced HCC patients eligible for clinical trials of systemic therapy. Methods: From December 1990 to July 2005, 236 patients with unresectable HCC were enrolled into 6 phase II trials of systemic therapy using the following regimens: (1) oral etoposide + tamoxifen, (2)doxorubicin + tamoxifen, (3)IFN-α2b + doxorubicin + tamoxifen, (4)pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, (5)thalidomide, and (6)arsenic trioxide. Univariate and multivariate analyses of 23 relevant clinical characteristics/staging systems were used to identify prognostic factors of survival. Results: Baseline characteristics: median age 55; male/female: 192/44; HBsAg(+) 71%; anti-HCV(+) 30%; Okuda stage I/II/III: 42%/55%/3%; AJCC stage III/IV: 30%/61%; BCLC stage B/C/D: 1%/94%/5%; CLIP score 0–3/4–6: 70%/30%; portal vein thrombosis 53%; extrahepatic metastasis 59%; prior chemoembolization 46%. The objective response rate according to WHO criteria was 11.4%. The median overall survival was 118 days (95% CI, 103–133). In the multivariate analysis, significant predictors of a shorter overall survival were: HBsAg(+) with a hazard ratio (HR) = 1.808 (95% CI, 1.121–2.916; P= 0.015), symptomatic with HR = 1.745 (95% CI, 1.072–2.840; P= 0.025), ECOG≥2 with HR = 1.763 (95% CI, 1.040–2.988; P= 0.035), and high BCLC stage with HR = 3.282 (95% CI, 1.129–9.541; P= 0.029). Conclusions: Patients with advanced HCC who are eligible for systemic therapeutic trials have patient- and disease-related prognostic factors. Positive HBsAg, symptomatic, ECOG performance≥2, and high BCLC stage predict a shorter overall survival. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

scholarly journals Optimizing Sequential Systemic Therapies for Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Decision Analysis

Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 2132
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Cabibbo ◽  
Ciro Celsa ◽  
Marco Enea ◽  
Salvatore Battaglia ◽  
Giacomo Emanuele Maria Rizzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Single Agent ◽  
Health Benefit ◽  
Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Advanced Hcc ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Sequential Treatments

Background: An optimal sequential systemic therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been discovered. We developed a decision model based on available clinical trials to identify an optimal risk/benefit strategy for sequences of novel systemic agents. Methods: A Markov model was built to simulate overall survival (OS) among patients with advanced HCC. Three first-line (single-agent Sorafenib or Lenvatinib, and combination of Atezolizumab plus Bevacizumab) followed by five second-line treatments (Regorafenib, Cabozantinib, Ramucirumab, Nivolumab, Pembrolizumab) were compared in fifteen sequential strategies. The likelihood of transition between states (initial treatment, cancer progression, death) was derived from clinical trials. Life-year gained (LYG) was the main outcome. Rates of severe adverse events (SAEs) (≥grade 3) were calculated. The innovative measure, called incremental safety-effectiveness ratio (ISER), of the two best sequential treatments was calculated as the difference in probability of SAEs divided by LYG. Results: Lenvatinib followed by Nivolumab (median OS, 27 months) was the most effective sequence, producing a LYG of 0.75, while Atezolizumab plus Bevacizumab followed by Nivolumab was the safest sequence (SAEs 40%). Accordingly, the net health benefit assessed by ISER favored Lenvatinib followed by Nivolumab, compared to Atezolizumab plus Bevacizumab, followed by Nivolumab in 52% of cases. Conclusion: Further sequential clinical trials or large-scale real-world studies may prove useful to evaluate the net health benefit of the best sequential treatment for advanced HCC.

scholarly journals Immunotherapy and Targeted Therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Literature Review and Treatment Perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Girardi ◽  
Jana Priscila M. Pacífico ◽  
Fernanda P. L. Guedes de Amorim ◽  
Gustavo dos Santos Fernandes ◽  
Marcela C. Teixeira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Targeted Therapies ◽  
Immune Checkpoint ◽  
Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors ◽  
Checkpoint Inhibitors ◽  
Phase Iii ◽  
Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Line Treatment ◽  
Sorafenib Treatment

Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma is a prevalent and potentially aggressive disease. For more than a decade, treatment with sorafenib has been the only approved therapeutic approach. Moreover, no agent has been proven to prolong survival following the progression of disease after sorafenib treatment. However, in recent years, this scenario has changed substantially with several trials being conducted to examine the effects of immunotherapy and novel targeting agents. Several immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown promising results in early-stage clinical trials. Moreover, phase III trials with large cohorts have demonstrated remarkable improvement in survival with the use of new targeted therapies in second-line treatment. Treatment regimens involving the combination of two immune checkpoint inhibitors as well as immune checkpoint inhibitors and anti-angiogenic targeted therapies have shown potential to act synergistically in clinical trials. Recently, the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab evaluated in a phase III clinical trial has demonstrated survival superiority in the first-line treatment; it is the new considered standard of care. In this manuscript, we aimed to review the latest advances in the systemic treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma focusing on immunotherapy and targeted therapies.

Trends of clinical outcomes with sorafenib in randomized controlled trials for patients with treatment-naïve advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 327-327
Author(s):  
Timothy J Brown ◽  
Arjun Gupta ◽  
Ramy Sedhom ◽  
Thomas Benjamin Karasic ◽  
Mark Yarchoan
Keyword(s):  
Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Median Duration ◽  
Systemic Therapy ◽  
Phase Iii ◽  
Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma ◽  
Advanced Hcc ◽  
Duration Of Therapy ◽  
Recist 1.1 ◽  
Over Time

327 Background: Sorafenib was first approved by the US FDA to treat patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after two landmark trials (SHARP and Asia-Pacific) showed improved overall survival (OS). Since those two landmark trials, median OS has increased in the sorafenib arms in several recent phase III trials in HCC. We analyzed trends in OS, progression-free survival (PFS), and objective response rates (ORR) in published randomized clinical trials of sorafenib in HCC to better understand factors underlying the improvements. Methods: We searched PubMed for all published trials of sorafenib in advanced HCC. Trials were included if the patients were naïve to systemic therapy and had a comparison arm that was active systemic therapy or placebo. We extracted demographic and trial-level outcome data to correlate outcomes such as OS, PFS, ORR, and duration of therapy. T-tests were used to compare outcomes and linear regression was used to identify temporal trends with significance set at p£0.05. Results: The PubMed search returned 100 studies. A total of 15 studies met inclusion criteria with a total of 3755 patients treated with sorafenib (9 phase III and 6 phase II). Included trials enrolled patients from 2005-2019. The median OS in all trials was 10.0 mos (range: 6.5-14.8 mos). OS has significantly improved since the first trial began accruing (p = 0.04). A total of 12 studies provided data on PFS using RECIST 1.1, with a median PFS of 4.0 months (range: 2.7-6.6 mos). PFS has not changed over time (p = 0.99). However, ORR assessed by RECIST 1.1 have trended toward improvement over time (p = 0.08). Median duration of therapy with sorafenib has decreased by 53% since the enrollment of the first clinical trial in 2005, from 23.1 weeks to 12.2 weeks (p = 0.02). Despite this, no significant correlations were observed with the interaction of duration of therapy and OS (p = 0.92). Further, there was no significant change in the age of patients included, proportion of patients with Childs-Pugh A, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) B, BCLC C, ECOG performance status 0, HBV or HCV, proportion of patients with extrahepatic spread or vascular invasion at time of enrollment, or proportion of patients who have undergone prior locoregional therapies to explain the OS findings. Conclusions: The OS of patients with advanced HCC on the sorafenib arm in published trials has been increasing, however the reasons for this increase are not apparent from data available in the published literature. At the same time, the median duration of treatment with sorafenib has been decreasing over time and PFS is unchanged, suggesting improvements in sorafenib delivery may not be the primary factor. It is possible these trends represent heretofore unquantified changes in patient selection for systemic therapy, improvements in supportive care, or post-progression treatment for patients on HCC clinical trials.

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