ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal and Hepatic Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1533471
First-Line Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Propensity-Matched Analysis of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors Combined with TACE, with or without PD-1 Inhibitors
Provisionally accepted
- Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
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Objective: This study attempted to comprehensively assess the clinical outcomes of cases with progressive HCC (pHCC) undergoing treatment with TKI and ICI in conjunction with TACE, as compared to the combination of TKI with TACE alone.Methods: From March 2019 to January 2022, this cohort comprised 82 cases who received TACE in conjunction with TKI and 52 cases who were treated with TACE plus TKI alone. The propensity scores was used to mitigate selection bias.Results: The multivariate analysis further reinforced that liver cirrhosis (HR = 1.233, 95% CI: 1.024-1.484, P = 0.027), tumor diameter (HR = 1.283, 95% CI: 1.086-1.515, P = 0.003), and the treatment strategy (HR = 0.495, 95% CI: 0.264-0.793, P = 0.000) were independently linked to OS, underscoring their prognostic relevance. Conclusion: Incorporating TACE, TKI, and ICI remarkably enhanced both PFS and OS relative to TACE with TKI alone, positioning it as a more efficacious first-line therapeutic strategy for unresectable HCC, while maintaining an acceptable safety profile in clinical settings.
Keywords: Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Transarterial chemoembolization, tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Immune checkpoint inhibitor, Propensity scores
Received: 24 Nov 2024; Accepted: 24 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shen, Xu, Teng, Ding and Chen. 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: Jinglong Chen, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
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