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WEDNESDAY, May 13, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Atezolizumab plus bevacizumab improves survival outcomes versus sorafenib in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, according to a study published in the May 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Richard S. Finn, M.D., from the Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, and colleagues conducted a global, open-label phase 3 trial involving patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who had not previously received systemic treatment. Participants were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to receive atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (336 patients) or sorafenib (165 patients) until unacceptable toxic effects or loss of clinical benefit.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that the hazard ratio for death was 0.58 with atezolizumab-bevacizumab versus sorafenib at the time of the primary analysis (Aug. 29, 2019). At 12 months, overall survival was 67.2 and 54.6 percent with atezolizumab-bevacizumab and sorafenib, respectively. The corresponding median progression-free survival rates were 6.8 and 4.3 months (hazard ratio for disease progression or death, 0.59). Grade 3 or 4 adverse events occurred in 56.5 and 55.1 percent of patients who received at least one dose of atezolizumab-bevacizumab and sorafenib, respectively. In the atezolizumab-bevacizumab group, 15.2 percent of patients had grade 3 or 4 hypertension.<\/p>\n
“These data are momentous, since they identify not only the first therapy to improve survival beyond sorafenib, but also the first successful combination regimen and the first positive randomized, phase 3 trial of immune checkpoint inhibition in this challenging cancer,” write the authors of an accompanying editorial.<\/p>\n
Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including F. Hoffmann-La Roche\/Genentech, which partly funded the study.<\/p>\n
Abstract\/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)<\/a><\/p>\n Editorial (subscription or payment may be required)<\/a><\/p>\n <\/i><\/p>\n