Cancers (Oct 2023)

Clinical Features and Outcomes of Conversion Therapy in Patients with Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma

  • Tetsu Tomonari,
  • Joji Tani,
  • Yasushi Sato,
  • Hironori Tanaka,
  • Takahiro Tanaka,
  • Tatsuya Taniguchi,
  • Yutaka Kawano,
  • Asahiro Morishita,
  • Koichi Okamoto,
  • Masahiro Sogabe,
  • Hiroshi Miyamoto,
  • Tsutomu Masaki,
  • Tetsuji Takayama

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15215221
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 21
p. 5221

Abstract

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This retrospective multicenter study analyzed 244 patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma treated with lenvatinib (LEN) and atezolizumab + bevacizumab (Atezo + Bev) to examine the characteristics, treatment courses, and prognoses. The cases of patients who could achieve HCC downstaging from Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage B or C to A or zero indicated the need for conversion therapy. The patients’ prognoses with and without conversion therapy were compared. Of the 244 patients, 12 (4.9%) underwent conversion therapy, six out of 131 (4.6%) were treated with LEN, and six out of 113 (5.3%) were treated with Atezo + Bev. Eleven patients (91.7%) with a modified albumin bilirubin (mALBI) grade 1 or 2a and BCLC-B stage showed significantly higher rates of transition during conversion therapy (p p p < 0.01). Among the patients with u-HCC who were treated with LEN and Atezo + Bev, those with mALBI 1 + 2a and BCLC-B were likely to achieve conversion therapy with downstaging.

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