Authors:	Galle, Peter R. Kudo, Masatoshi Llovet, Josep M. Finn, Richard S. Karwal, Mark Pezet, Denis Kim, Tae-You Yang, Tsai-Sheng Lonardi, Sara Tomasek, Jiri Phelip, Jean-Marc Touchefeu, Yann Koh, Su-Jin Stirnimann, Guido Liang, Kun Ogburn, Kenyon D. Wang, Chunxiao Abada, Paolo Widau, Ryan C. Zhu, Andrew X.
Title:	Ramucirumab in patients with previously treated advanced hepatocellular carcinoma : impact of liver disease aetiology
Online publication date:	7-Sep-2022
Year of first publication:	2021
Language:	english
Abstract:	Background & Aims Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common complication of chronic liver disease with diverse underlying aetiologies. REACH/REACH-2 were global phase III studies investigating ramucirumab in advanced HCC (aHCC) following sorafenib treatment. We performed an exploratory analysis of outcomes by liver disease aetiology and baseline serum viral load. Methods Meta-analysis was conducted in patients with aHCC and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) ≥400 ng/mL (N = 542) from REACH/REACH-2 trials. Individual patient-level data were pooled with results reported by aetiology subgroup (hepatitis B [HBV] or C [HCV] and Other). Pre-treatment serum HBV DNA and HCV RNA were quantified using Roche COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard model (stratified by study). Results Baseline characteristics were generally balanced between arms in each subgroup (HBV: N = 225, HCV: N = 127, Other: N = 190). No significant difference in treatment effect by aetiology subgroup was detected (OS interaction P-value = .23). Median OS (ramucirumab vs placebo) in months was 7.7 versus 4.5 (HR 0.74, 95% CI 0.55–0.99) for HBV, 8.2 versus 5.5 (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.55–1.23) for HCV and 8.5 versus 5.4 (HR 0.56, 95% CI 0.40–0.79) for Other. Ramucirumab showed similar overall safety profiles across subgroups. Worst outcomes were noted in patients with a detectable HBV load. Use of HBV antiviral therapy, irrespective of viral load, was beneficial for survival, liver function and liver-specific adverse events. Conclusions Ramucirumab improved survival across aetiology subgroups with a tolerable safety profile, supporting its use in patients with aHCC and elevated AFP.
DDC:	610 Medizin 610 Medical sciences
Institution:	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Department:	FB 04 Medizin
Place:	Mainz
ROR:	https://ror.org/023b0x485
DOI:	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-7702
Version:	Published version
Publication type:	Zeitschriftenaufsatz
License:	CC BY-NC
Information on rights of use:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Journal:	Liver international 41 11
Pages or article number:	2759 2767
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell
Publisher place:	Oxford
Issue date:	2021
ISSN:	1478-3231
Publisher DOI:	10.1111/liv.14994
Appears in collections:	JGU-Publikationen