Lenvatinib plus TACE with or without pembrolizumab for the treatment of initially unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma harbouring PD-L1 expression: a retrospective study

作者：Song Chen, Zhiqiang Wu, Feng Shi, Qicong Mai, Liguang Wang, Fan Wang, Wenquan Zhuang, Xiaoming Chen, Huanwei Chen, Bo Xu, Jiaming Lai, Wenbo Guo · 发表于：Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1007/s00432-021-03767-4 · 被引用次数：114 · 研究领域：Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment and Prognosis、Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers、Cholangiocarcinoma and Gallbladder Cancer Studies

PURPOSE: The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the clinical outcomes of pembrolizumab-lenvatinib-transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) versus lenvatinib-TACE sequential therapy in selected populations of Chinese patients with initially unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC) harbouring programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression. METHODS: Consecutive patients with initial PD-L1-positive uHCC who received pembrolizumab-lenvatinib-TACE or lenvatinib-TACE sequential therapy were retrospectively identified from three medical institutions during 2016-2020. The primary endpoints included the rate of conversion therapy, defined as converting initially uHCC to hepatectomy, overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival (PFS); secondary endpoint was the frequency of key adverse events (AEs). RESULTS: In total, 220 consecutively recruited patients were retrospectively reviewed, 78 of whom were ineligible according to the current criteria, leaving 142 patients [pembrolizumab-lenvatinib-TACE: n = 70, median age 58 years (range 36-69) and lenvatinib-TACE: n = 72, 57 years (35-68)] who were eligible for the study. The median duration of follow-up was 27 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 26.3-28.7 months]. At the last follow-up, the rate of conversion therapy was 25.7% in the pembrolizumab-lenvatinib-TACE group and 11.1% in the lenvatinib-TACE group (p = 0.025). The median OS was 18.1 months (95% CI 16.5-20.7) in the pembrolizumab-lenvatinib-TACE group ver...