Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and Anti-vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Antibody/tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors with or Without HAIC for Advanced HCC

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) plus programmed death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors are recommended for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in China. However, these treatments have limited survival benefit in patients with advanced HCC. We aimed to investigate whether hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) in combination with TKIs and PD-1 inhibitors could improve the efficacy.

The multiple real-world studies have shown that Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) plus programmed death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors (TKIs-P) does not result in a high response rate or extended survival for patients with extrahepatic metastases, with an objective response rate (ORR) of less than 20%. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore effective therapeutic strategies that can enhance the combined antitumor efficacy of TKIs-P and improve the prognosis of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In addition to TKIs-P, more aggressive treatments, such as hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC), have been adopted in the Asia-Pacific region. HAIC significantly increases drug concentration in HCC tissues while decreasing drug distribution in the peripheral blood, thereby improving intrahepatic tumor control and reducing systemic adverse events (AEs). Recent significant advancements have been reported in both local-regional and systemic therapies. Furthermore, the combination of HAIC with TKIs-P (HAIC-TKIs-P) may provide potential synergistic anticancer activity for HCC based on the following rationale: HAIC can effectively kill tumors while promoting the release of tumor antigens, thus transforming "cold tumors" into "hot tumors." At the same time, TKIs can reverse the tumor neovascularization induced by interventional therapies and enhance tumor vasculature normalization. However, it remains unclear whether patients with advanced HCC can benefit from HAIC-TKIs -P through intrahepatic lesion control, thereby impeding tumor progression. Accordingly, this national multiple-centers retrospective study aims to compare the clinical benefits and tolerability of HAIC-TKIs-P versus TKIs-P alone.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

1. Has a diagnosis of HCC confirmed by radiology, histology, or cytology;
2. Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage B/C;
3. Has not received any previous systemic therapy for HCC (including chemotherapy, molecularly targeted therapy, immunotherapy);
4. Both PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors and anti-angiogenesis drugs patients received only include marketed drugs but are not limited to HCC approval;
5. HAIC was performed after the first PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor/anti-angiogenic drug treatment or before treatment (within 3 months);
6. Received at least 1 cycle of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor/anti-angiogenic drug combination therapy after HAIC treatment;
7. Has repeated measurable intrahepatic lesions;

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Cholangiocarcinoma, fibrolamellar, sarcomatoid hepatocellular carcinoma, and mixed hepatocellular/cholangiocarcinoma subtypes(confirmed by histology, or pathology) are not eligible;
2. Unable to meet criteria of combination timeframe described above;
3. Child-Pugh C or PS\>2 or Severe hepatic encephalopathy