The efficacy and safety of lenvatinib for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in China: A retrospective, real-world study.

Abstract

e16182 Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancy with dismal outcomes. Recently, lenvatinib have been approved as the first-line therapy for unresectable HCC. However, the efficacy and safety of lenvatinib with the combination of other therapy such as transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy was still unclear. Methods: A multicenter retrospective study was conducted and 158 HCC patients treated with lenvatinib from four medical centers were enrolled between November 2018 and December 2020. According to the treatment combined with lenvatinib, all patients were classified into four groups, including lenvatinib monotherapy (LEN) group, combined ICI (c-ICI) group, combined TACE (c-TACE) group and combined ICI and TACE (c-ICI-TACE) group. Objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were assessed. Overall survival (OS) and time to progression (TTP) were calculated and compared among different groups. Results: All patients (n = 158) were classified into LEN group (n = 40), c-ICI group (n = 42), c-TACE group (n = 39) and c-TACE-ICI group (n = 37). In all patients, the ORR and DCR was 29.1% and 74.1%. The median OS and TTP were 21.8 and 6.2 months, respectively. Four groups showed significant differences in ORR and DCR rates. Specifically, c-ICI-TACE group have significantly higher ORR and DCR rate compared with LEN group (ORR: 12% vs. 38%, P = 0.002; DCR: 60% vs. 89%, P = 0.004). Kaplan-Meier analysis identified that LEN group, c-ICI group, c-TACE group and c-TACE-ICI group showed significantly different TTP (median TTP: 5.0 vs. 6.6 vs. 4.9 vs. 9.5 months; P = 0.021), but similar OS (median OS: 21.8 vs. 19.6 vs. 17.5 months vs. unreached; P = 0.180). Further investigation revealed lenvatinib combined with ICI could prolong TTP compare with lenvatinib without ICI (median TTP: 8.4 vs. 5.0 months; P = 0.019), but it had no significant impact on OS (median OS: unreached vs. 20.1 months; P = 0.300). c-ICI-TACE group showed both better TTP and improved OS compared with other three groups (median TTP: 9.5 vs. 5.2 months; P = 0.004; median OS: unreached vs. 20.1 months; P = 0.034). Univariate and multivariate analysis confirmed that c-ICI-TACE was an independent protective factor for OS (hazard ratio: 0.226; 95% confidence interval: 0.10-0.50; P < 0.001) and TTP (hazard ratio: 0.55; 95% confidence interval: 0.32-0.95; P = 0.032). Most patients (152/158, 96.2%) showed adverse events (AEs) during lenvatinib treatment and the grade 3 AE occurred in 45 patients (28.5%). No significant difference of AE (P = 0.569) and grade 3 AE (P = 0.572) was found among four groups. Conclusions: Lenvatinib was an effective treatment for patients with HCC. Lenvatinib combined ICI could prolong the TTP, while lenvatinib combined ICI and TACE could improve both TTP and OS. Combined therapy wouldn’t escalate the AE and grade 3 AE rates.