Jessica Ganga

GI Oncology Now

Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) may be an effective first-line therapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and may improve prognosis. <a href="https://meetings.asco.org/abstracts-presentations/253030" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The findings of the study</a> were presented at the <a href="https://www.asco.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting</a> in Chicago, Illinois.Dr. Tianqing Wu and colleagues aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of HAIC combined with donafenib and tislelizumab as a first-line treatment for patients with HCC compared with the standard treatment&mdash;transcatheter chemoembolization (TACE).Researchers included 421 patients diagnosed with HCC and treated at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center in Guangzhou, China, from January 2017 to December 2024. In total, 151 patients received FOLFOX-HAIC combined with donafenib and tislelzumab (DT-HAIC), and 270 patients received TACE alone. Researchers used propensity score matching to avoid selection bias and balance covariates, which resulted in 151 matched pairs with comparable baseline characteristics between the two cohorts. The primary outcomes of the study included progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The study also included secondary outcomes, which were objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and safety.Patients who received DT-HAIC showed better median PFS (10.3 vs 4.9 months; P&lt;0.01) and median OS (not reached vs 10.9 months; P&lt;0.01) compared with patients who received only TACE. The ORR and DCR were higher in the DT-HAIC cohort (ORR, 33.8%; P&lt;0.01; DCR, 77.9%; P=0.03) than in the TACE cohort (ORR, 11.3%; P&lt;0.01; DCR, 65.3%; P=0.03).The researchers reported no treatment-related deaths, and serious adverse events were similar between the two cohorts, apart from alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), platelet count, abdominal pain, and allergic reactions. Elevations in ALT (11.3% vs 21.9%; P=0.02), AST (21.2% vs 36.4%; P&lt;0.01), and abdominal pain (2.6% vs 16.6%; P&lt;0.01) were more prevalent in the TACE cohort. Comparatively, patients in the DT-HAICE cohort showed a higher incidence of grade 3-4 thrombocytopenia (11.3% vs 1.3%; P&lt;0.01) and allergic reactions (4.6% vs 0%; P=0.02).&ldquo;DT-HAIC significantly improved PFS, OS, ORR, and DCR compared with TACE alone, with manageable adverse events, suggesting that the combination of HAIC with donafenib and tislelizumab may be a promising treatment option for HCC patients,&rdquo; Dr. Wu and colleagues concluded.

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Combination Therapy for Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma Shows Promising Survival Benefit

Researchers evaluated the efficacy and safety of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy as a first-line treatment option. 