Manipal Hospital, Bangalore, India
Amit Rauthan , Poonam Patil , Nitin Yashas Murthy , S.P. Somashekhar , Shabber Zaveri , Rajashri Aswath Jr., Prathyush V , Chinnu Jomi
Background: Firstline treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) till recently has been sorafenib or lenvatinib. Lenvatinib, due to its better tolerability and efficacy (in PFS) over sorafenib, is our preferred first line treatment. Nivolumab, with an objective response rate (ORR) of 14.3% and median duration of response of 16.6 months, was approved by FDA on the basis of the CheckMate-040 trial in patients who progressed or were intolerant to sorafenib. There is very limited data of immunotherapy on progression with lenvatinib. Methods: This is a single center, retrospective analysis of patients with advanced HCC who progressed on first line lenvatinib and received treatment with nivolumab. The endpoints were objective response rate (ORR), progression free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and toxicity. Results: 15 patients who progressed on lenvatinib, received nivolumab at 3 mg/kg, 2 weekly as second line therapy between July 2019 to July 2021. There were 2 females and 13 males. Median age was 66 years (37-77 years). All patients were BCLC stage C. AFP was elevated in 11 patients. Child Pugh score was A in 10 patients, and B in 5 patients. 7 patients had background of hepatitis B and 1 had hepatitis C. The number of cycles of nivolumab ranged from 2 to 13 cycles. 3 patients (20%) had partial response, 2 had stable disease and 10 (66.6%) had progressive disease by recist criteria. The ORR was 20% and median PFS was 3 months. Median OS was 8 months. The common side effects were hypothyroidism in 7 (46.6%), fatigue in 4 (26.6%) and skin rashes in 3 (20%) patients. Conclusions: Immunotherapy with nivolumab showed limited efficacy in our patients of HCC who have progressed on lenvatinib. There were few patients who showed durable response, but there are no biomarkers to choose these patients. The immune related side effects were manageable. With the first line approval of combination therapy with atezolizumab and bevacizumab, single agent second line immunotherapy with its limited efficacy, may have a reduced role in HCC management.
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