Hepatocellular Carcinoma Update, Issue 1, 2017 (Video Program)Recent advances in the management of HCC
2:23 minutes.
TRANSCRIPTION:
DR EL-KHOUEIRY: This is an exciting time in the treatment of HCC, of hepatocellular carcinoma. As everyone recalls, about 10 years ago we had the approval of sorafenib as the first FDA-approved systemic therapy for advanced HCC. Then for a long time we had a big gap of about 10 years with no other approvals. There were multiple failed Phase III studies, some in the first line comparing multiple agents to sorafenib and some in the second line comparing agents to best supportive care. Unfortunately, all of these were negative. Finally, over the past 2 years there’s been some light at the end of the tunnel. We’ll probably come back to these discussions, but there’s now promising data or positive data with regorafenib in second line, post-sorafenib, showing a survival benefit. We have the exciting data that’s emerging from the Phase I/II study with nivolumab; again, utilizing immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma. We’ve heard about a press release with lenvatinib compared in first line to sorafenib. And the press release told us that the study met its primary endpoint of noninferiority in overall survival to sorafenib. So certainly we’re seeing some more positive data recently. The other exciting thing is that the research has broadened in scope. For a long time the focus was always on targeted therapies. And whereas targeted therapies do have a place in hepatocellular carcinoma, this is such a complex and heterogeneous disease that targeting the immune system, targeting the stroma, targeting the epigenome, targeting stem cells, tumor-initiating cells — all these things will probably have a role in complementing existing therapies in this disease. So it’s a very exciting time. |