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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1474442
This article is part of the Research Topic Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Novel Treatment Strategies - Volume III View all 16 articles

Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors and molecular targeted therapies for advanced infiltrative hepatocellular carcinoma: a single-center experience

Provisionally accepted
Zizhuo Wang Zizhuo Wang Songlin Song Songlin Song Lijie Zhang Lijie Zhang Tingting Yang Tingting Yang Wei Yao Wei Yao Bin Liang Bin Liang *
  • Department of Radiology, Wuhan Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Infiltrative hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a therapeutic challenge due to its aggressive course and poor prognosis. Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) plus immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and molecular targeted therapies (MTTs) has shown early promise for advanced HCC, but its role in advanced infiltrative HCC is unclear. This study aims to investigate the efficacy and safety of HAIC combined with ICIs and MTTs in the treatment of advanced infiltrative HCC. Methods: Patients with infiltrative HCC initially treated with HAIC plus ICIs and MTTs were consecutively included at our institution from November 2021 to June 2023. The efficacy evaluation included tumor response, time to response (TTR), duration of response (DOR), progression-free survival (PFS) per RECIST 1.1, and patient survival. Adverse events (AEs) were recorded for safety evaluation. Results: A total of 27 patients were included and the median follow-up was 15.8 months (range, 4.3–25.9). The best objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were 70.4% and 88.9%, respectively. The median TTR was 2.8 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.6–3.0) and the median DOR was 7.9 months (95% CI, 3.2–12.5). The median PFS was 7.5 months (95% CI, 4.2–10.7), and the median overall survival (OS) was 16.8 months (95% CI, 14.0–19.6), with a 1-year OS rate of 74.1%. No cases of grade 4 or 5 treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) were observed in this study. Grade 3 TRAEs occurred in 17/27 (63.0%) patients, and the predominant grade 3 treatment-related adverse events were lymphocyte count decreased (18.5%) and neutrophil count decreased (14.8%). Conclusions: The combination of HAIC plus ICIs and MTTs demonstrated encouraging outcomes and manageable safety concerns for infiltrative HCC.

    Keywords: infiltrative hepatocellular carcinoma, Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Hepatic arterial infusion, Immunotherapy, Molecular Targeted Therapy

    Received: 01 Aug 2024; Accepted: 23 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Song, Zhang, Yang, Yao and Liang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Bin Liang, Department of Radiology, Wuhan Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.