Studies Investigate Multiple Types of Therapies in HCC
Michael R. Charlton, MD, MBBS, discusses different types of therapy and trials in the hepatocellular carcinoma setting right now.
Michael R. Charlton, MD, MBBS, professor of Medicine, director of the Center for Liver Diseases, and co-director of the Transplant Institute at the University of Chicago Medicine, discusses different types of therapy and trials in the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) setting right now.
The different groups of therapies being looked at in this setting are tyrosine kinase inhibitors, oral and intravenous treatment, and checkpoint inhibitor therapies. Many of these therapies are being used in combination. Charlton identifies cabozantinib (Cabometyx) being used with the checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo). He mentions the IMbrave150 trial, which investigated bevacizumab (Avastin) and the checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab (Tecentriq).
The outcomes of patients with HCC have seen improvement in progression-free survival and overall survival. Charlton thinks that this is an area in the HCC landscape which has had difficulty making headway in the past. He says the previous guidelines that are only a year old are no longer current, which is great. He and his colleagues spoke to each other about having guidelines that are actively being updated, so they reflect data as they emerge instead of waiting 1 or 2 years for the field to agree that using a specific regimen is the correct thing to do.
