(ChemotherapyAdvisor) – Loco-regional therapy with selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) and sorafenib demonstrated good efficacy in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), especially those in Barcelona Clinic Liver Criteria (BCLC) stage B, investigators reported during the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 37th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, CA, on March 27.
Irani et al. from Singapore General Hospital investigated whether combination sequential SIRT and sorafenib would offer additional survival benefit. The prospective multicenter Asia-Pacific HCC trials group protocol 05 study enrolled 35 patients with inoperable HCC BCLC stages B and C between June 2008 and June 2009. Patients were administered SIR-spheres (maximum dose 3GBq) and subsequent sorafenib 400mg twice daily. Monthly clinical and biochemical follow-up and tri-monthly CT scans were performed.
Median follow-up was 47 weeks (range, 10–94 weeks). Overall tumor response was 35.5%: 12% of patients had complete regression; 23.5%, partial regression; 44%, stable disease; and 21%, progressive disease. Disease control rate in patients BCLC stage B was 100% and BCLC stage C patients, 68%.
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Median overall survival was 47 weeks for all patients; for those BCLC stage B, overall survival was 73 weeks and for BCLC stage C, 35 weeks. Median time to disease progression was 39 weeks; for BCLC stage B patients, this was not yet reached and, for BCLC stage C patients, it was 35 weeks.