In a Chinese study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wei et al found that neoadjuvant three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy improved outcomes vs hepatectomy alone in patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein tumor thrombus. Study Details In the multicenter...
In a multi-institutional international analysis reported in JAMA Surgery, Merath et al found that a textbook outcome was achieved in a minority of patients undergoing curative-intent resection of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Study Details The study involved data on 687 patients from 15 major...
In an analysis from the Children’s Oncology Group phase III AHEP0731 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Katzenstein et al found that minimal adjuvant chemotherapy with two cycles of cisplatin, fluorouracil, and vincristine was associated with disease control in pediatric patients with...
In a phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Shroff and colleagues found that the addition of nab-paclitaxel to standard gemcitabine and cisplatin resulted in promising outcomes in patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic biliary tract cancers. The study included 60 patients...
Watch John Marshall, MD, and BILCAP first author John Neil Primrose, PhD, MBBS, discuss the trial at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting. In the phase III BILCAP trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Primrose and colleagues found evidence that adjuvant capecitabine may improve overall...
In a French phase III trial (PRODIGE 12-ACCORD 18-UNICANCER GI) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Edeline et al found that adjuvant gemcitabine plus oxaliplatin (GEMOX) did not significantly improve relapse-free survival vs surveillance following resection for localized biliary tract...
In the phase III REACH-2 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Zhu et al found that ramucirumab improved overall and progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and increased α-fetoprotein levels who had previously received sorafenib. Study...
In a Chinese retrospective study reported in JAMA Surgery, Xu et al found that risk of late recurrence (> 2 years) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after curative liver resection was associated with male sex, presence of cirrhosis, and aggressive characteristics of the initial HCC. The study...
A pooled analysis of two large U.S. prospective cohort studies reported in JAMA Oncology by Simon et al indicates that regular use of aspirin is associated with a significant reduction in risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with an apparent dose- and duration-dependent effect. Study Details...
In a Korean nationwide cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Choi et al found that hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) appeared to be more common with first-line entecavir vs tenofovir treatment for chronic hepatitis B. The study involved data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service...
In a phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Sahai et al found that the first-line combination of nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine—though it did not meet the progression-free survival primary endpoint—may constitute a treatment option in advanced cholangiocarcinoma. Study Details In...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Abou-Alfa and colleagues, the second interim analysis of the phase III CELESTIAL trial has shown a significant improvement in overall and progression-free survival with cabozantinib (Cabometyx) vs placebo in patients with sorafenib...
In a phase III International Liver Tumor Strategy Group trial (SIOPEL 6) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Brock et al found that sodium thiosulfate reduced cisplatin-induced hearing loss in pediatric patients with standard-risk hepatoblastoma. Study Details The trial enrolled a...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Zhu et al, the phase II KEYNOTE-224 study has shown activity of pembrolizumab in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) pretreated with sorafenib. Study Details In the study, 104 eligible patients who were intolerant of or progressed on sorafenib were...
In the phase III METIV-HCC trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rimassa et al found no improvement in overall survival with the investigational MET inhibitor tivantinib vs placebo in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with high MET expression previously treated with sorafenib...
In a study among California residents reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Pham et al found that those designated as Asian/Pacific Islanders were at elevated risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) vs other racial/ethnic groups, with the highest risk observed among Southeast...
In an investigator-initiated phase III SIRveNIB trial in Asia-Pacific patients reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chow et al found no difference in overall survival with selective internal radiation therapy, or radioembolization, vs sorafenib (Nexavar) in patients with unresectable...
In a phase III noninferiority trial reported in The Lancet, Kudo et al found that first-line lenvatinib was noninferior to sorafenib in overall survival of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details In the open-label trial, 954 patients from 154 sites in 20 countries in...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Javle et al found that the oral pan-fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) kinase inhibitor BGJ398 was active in FGFR-altered advanced cholangiocarcinoma. It is estimated that FGFR2 fusions/translocations are present in 13% to 17%...
A French phase III trial has shown no significant survival difference between selective internal radiotherapy with yttrium-90 resin microspheres vs sorafenib (Nexavar) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. The findings were reported by Vilgrain et al in The Lancet Oncology. Study...
In a retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Reiss et al found that reducing the starting dose of sorafenib (Nexavar) was associated with noninferior overall survival, reduced cost, and lower risk of discontinuing treatment in patients with advanced hepatocellular...
As reported in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology by Meyer et al, the UK phase III TACE 2 trial has shown no progression-free survival benefit with the addition of sorafenib (Nexavar) to transarterial chemoembolization in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. The trial was...
Nivolumab (Opdivo) has been found to produce durable responses in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, in the phase I/II CheckMate 040 trial. These findings were reported in The Lancet by El-Khoueiry et al. Study Details The phase I/II dose-escalation and dose-expansion trial was...
Several single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the chromosomal region containing both ABCB1 and ABCB4 genes were associated with an increased risk of gallbladder cancer, in an Indian case-control genome-wide association study reported in The Lancet Oncology by Mhatre et al. Study Details The study...
In a meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jackson et al found that overall survival with sorafenib (Nexavar) in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma was significantly improved vs comparator treatments among patients who were both hepatitis B virus (HBV)-negative and hepatitis C...
Regorafenib (Stivarga) improved overall survival vs placebo in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who had experienced disease progression on sorafenib (Nexavar) treatment, according to the phase III RESORCE trial reported by Bruix et al in The Lancet. Study Details In this double-blind trial, ...
In an exploratory analysis of the REACH trial in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma reported in JAMA Oncology, Zhu et al found a borderline survival benefit of second-line ramucirumab (Cyramza) vs placebo among patients with a Child-Pugh score of 5 and a significant benefit among patients with a...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Brown et al found no apparent benefit of hepatic artery chemoembolization using doxorubicin-eluting microspheres vs embolization with microspheres alone in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details In the trial, 101...
High-dose hypofractionated proton beam therapy produced a high rate of local control in patients with localized unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma or intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, according to a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Hong et al. Study Details In the...
In a single-institution retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wahl et al found that stereotactic body radiotherapy may provide better freedom from local tumor progression vs radiofrequency ablation in patients with inoperable nonmetastatic larger hepatocellular...
In the phase III STORM trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bruix et al found no benefit with adjuvant sorafenib (Nexavar) treatment in patients who had undergone resection or ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details In this double-blind trial, 1,114 patients from 202 sites in 28...
In a UK randomized phase II trial (ABC-03) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Valle et al found that adding the VEGF inhibitor cediranib to first-line cisplatin/gemcitabine did not improve progression-free survival in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer. Study Details In the double-blind...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Lin et al developed a serum microRNA classifier that was more accurate than alpha-fetoprotein in detecting preclinical hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details The study involved healthy controls, inactive hepatitis B surface antigen carriers,...
In the phase III REACH trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Zhu et al found that the anti-VEGFR2 monoclonal antibody ramucirumab (Cyramza) did not significantly improve overall survival vs placebo in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who had received first-line treatment with the...
In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Spolverato et al derived 3-year conditional survival estimates for patients in a multi-institutional database who underwent liver resection for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Among all patients, actuarial overall survival was 16% at 8 years, whereas 3-year...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, McGlynn et al found that statin use was associated with a reduced risk of primary liver cancer in a setting of low liver cancer prevalence. Other studies have shown a preventive benefit of statin therapy in regions of the world...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ostronoff et al found that the presence of the NPM1-positive/FLT3-internal tandem duplication (ITD)–negative genotype—which is recognized as a marker of better prognosis in younger patients with acute myeloid leukemia—was...
In a Chinese study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ren et al found that prophylactic use of urea-based cream reduced the incidence of sorafenib (Nexavar)–associated hand-foot skin reactions in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Urea-based creams are used to treat...
In the phase III SEARCH trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zhu et al found no overall survival benefit of adding erlotinib (Tarceva) to sorafenib (Nexavar) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details In this double-blind trial conducted in 26 countries in...
In a study in the Multiethnic Cohort (composed of men and women from California and Hawaii) reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Setiawan et al found that diabetes was associated with increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in all racial/ethnic groups, with risk being...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cainap et al found that treatment with linifanib, an ATP-competitive inhibitor of VEGF and PDGF receptor tyrosine kinases, did not improve overall survival compared with sorafenib (Nexavar) treatment in patients with advanced...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Lau et al found that implementation of a multidisciplinary hepatopancreaticobiliary surgical program in a Veterans Affairs (VA) health-care region resulted in improved care and outcomes. The study involved analysis of practices and outcomes ...
In a single-center retrospective matched case-control study reported in JAMA Surgery, Franken et al found no significant differences in 30-day morbidity or mortality, positive margin status, major complications, hospital stay, or readmission rates for laparoscopic vs open partial hepatic resection...
The multikinase inhibitor sorafenib (Nexavar) is the only effective systemic treatment available in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. In the phase III EVOLVE-1 trial reported in JAMA, Zhu et al found no survival benefit from treatment with the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) after sorafenib...
Gemcitabine plus a platinum agent is standard treatment in advanced biliary cancer. In the phase II open-label noncomparative BINGO trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology, Malka et al found no apparent benefit of adding the EGFR inhibitor cetuximab (Erbitux) to gemcitabine/oxaliplatin in first-line ...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Kaseb et al developed a plasma insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1)–based score for hepatic reserve in hepatocellular carcinoma and compared its predictive ability with that of the Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) score in two...
There are limited data on outcomes after surgery for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Surgery, Mavros et al found that tumor characteristics are the primary predictors of survival after curative intent surgery, indicating the need for...
In a Chinese study reported in JAMA Surgery, Huang et al found that preoperative elevated hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg) level is an independent risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence and mortality in patients with low HBV DNA levels undergoing hepatic resection....
In an open-label phase III superiority/noninferiority trial reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ann-Lii Cheng, MD, of National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei, sunitinib (Sutent) was associated with significantly poorer overall survival compared with sorafenib (Nexavar) in a population ...
Patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma have poor postoperative prognosis. In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jianhua Yin, MD, of the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai, and colleagues assessed the effects of nucleotide/nucleoside analog...