June 2016

A critical need remains to identify biomarkers that may aid in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance, treatment stratification, and patient management.

Treatment with a dexamethasone regimen reduced the incidence of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization associated fever, nausea, vomiting, and anorexia in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Upfront treatment with the combination of doxorubicin and sorafenib did not improve overall survival compared with sorafenib alone for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma .

Treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab demonstrated an objective response rate of 9% as a second-line therapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Treatment with ADI-PEG20 did not demonstrate an improvement in overall survival compared with placebo for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Second-line treatment with regorafenib improved overall survival versus best supportive care in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who progressed after receiving sorafenib.

Data from 2 recent studies indicate that patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) who were treated with direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy were more likely to experience a recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) than those who had no previous history of the disease.

Regorafenib may soon become another successful treatment for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, following the demonstration of prolonged survival with the multikinase inhibitor versus best support care in the phase III RESORCE trial.