Efficacy and safety of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization-lenvatinib sequential therapy for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: a single-arm clinical study

作者：Ruiqing Chen, Lingbing Li, Li Ye, Ke Song, Chenyu Shen, Pengkai Ma, Zhijun Wang · 发表于：Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.21037/jgo-22-525 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment and Prognosis、Cholangiocarcinoma and Gallbladder Cancer Studies、Cancer Mechanisms and Therapy

Background: Repeated transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) could cause ischemia of the tumor tissue and increases production of angiogenic factors in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Lenvatinib can inhibit the expression of angiogenic factors induced by ischemia after TACE and reduce angiogenesis and tumor recurrence. TACE-lenvatinib sequential therapy may improve clinical outcomes. There have been few investigations of TACE-lenvatinib sequential therapy for the treatment of unresectable HCC. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of TACE-lenvatinib sequential therapy for unresectable HCC. Methods: From May 2018 to May 2021, 53 consecutive patients who underwent TACE-lenvatinib sequential therapy were retrospectively reviewed. Of these, 30 patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected. Lenvatinib treatment started within 1 or 2 weeks after TACE at a dose of 8 or 12 mg once daily. Treatment response was assessed using dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) according to the modified response evaluation criteria in solid tumor (mRECIST). Blood tests were also performed at every response evaluation. Patients with complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) and stable disease (SD) received continuous lenvatinib therapy, and patients with progressive disease (PD) received repeated TACE. The progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and adverse events (AEs) were calcul...