Efficacy and safety of anlotinib combined with transarterial chemoembolization versus transarterial chemoembolization alone in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: A retrospective study.

Abstract

e16611 Background: HCC is one of the most common cancer among all the malignant tumor, while the efficacy of TACE alone for unresectable HCC patients still remains unsatisfactory. With the development of targeted drug, more and more targeted drugs are applying to the treatment of HCC. Objective: The aim of the stidy is to investigate the efficacy and safety of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with Anlotinib versus TACE alone in patients with unresectable HCC. Methods: This single-center retrospective study involved 82 patients with unresectable HCC who underwent TACE alone (TA group; n=46) or TACE combined with Anlotinib (TC group; n=36) between Jan 2018 and Jan 2019. The primary outcomes were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), while the secondary outcomes included the objective response rate (ORR), the disease control rate (DCR) and main complications. Results: The TC group showed relatively higher PFS than the TA group (7.35months vs. 5.54 months, p=0.035). The 3-month survival rate was not statistically different between the two groups (97.2% vs. 93.5%, p=0.627), while both the 6-month survival rate and 1-year survival rate were significantly higher in the TC group than in the TA group (83.3% vs. 56.5%, p=0.016; 66.7% vs. 19.6%, p<0.01). ORR in the TA group was significantly higher than in the TC group (77.8% vs. 32.6%, p<0.01), while the two groups showed no statistical difference in DCR (94.4% vs. 82.6%, p=0.17). No treatment-related mortality or grade 4 adverse event was observed, but grade 3 adverse events occurred in two patients in the TC group (one suffered with erythra, and another suffered with hand-foot-skin reaction). Both of them disappeared after prompt treatment. Conclusions: TACE combined with Anlotinib is safe and may improve outcomes for unresectable HCC patients comparing with TACE alone. It still needs more further randomized controlled trials to clarify the potential role of Anlotinib in hepatocellular carcinoma. Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Anlotinib; Transarterial chemoembolization