Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy after sorafenib treatment in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who are unfit for regorafenib.

Abstract

355 Background: The RESORCE trial proved survival benefit of regorafenib on advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (aHCC) in the limiting cohort. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) as second-line treatment in patients with aHCC who are unfit for regorafenib. Methods: We studied consecutive 159 patients with aHCC treated with sorafenib in our institution from June 2009 to March 2018. We divided them into two groups according to the eligibility for RESORCE trial (Rego or non-Rego group) and investigated the efficacy of HAIC as post-sorafenib treatment. Moreover, we also analyzed the prognostic factors in each group. Results: When sorafenib treatment failed, 63 patients (39.6%) fulfilled key inclusion criteria of the RESORCE trial and were considered as fit for regorafenib treatment (Rego group). Among 96 remaining patients (non-Rego group), 34 patients (35.4%) were treated with HAIC after sorafenib. The objective response and the median progression-free survival of HAIC were 38.2% and 3.9 months, which were independent of the efficacy or treatment duration of sorafenib. The median survival of HAIC after sorafenib was 11.3 months which was significantly longer than that of 62 patients without HAIC (4.7 months; P = 0.023). Four factors, HAIC (HR 0.516), Child-Pugh A (HR 0.362), tumor size ≥35mm (HR 1.959), and AFP ≥200 (HR 1.728), were identified as independent prognostic factors after sorafenib in multivariate analysis. In Rego group, 14 patients were actually treated with regorafenib and their survival after sorafenib was longer than that of the patients without regorafenib and with HAIC (P < 0.01 and P < 0.01, respectively). In Rego group, regorafenib (HR 0.152), extrahepatic lesions (HR 2.160), and ≥10 intra-hepatic lesions (HR 2.099) were identified as prognostic factors after sorafenib in multivariate analysis. Conclusions: HAIC showed promising tumor response and patients’ outcome for the patients who are unfit for regorafenib. Further investigation is needed to compare HAIC with ramucirumab, cabozantinib or nivolumab.