Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy with anti-angiogenesis agents and immune checkpoint inhibitiors for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma and meta-analysis

• Published in: World journal of gastroenterology : WJG Vol. 30; no. 4; pp. 318 - 331
• Main Authors: Cao, Yu-Zhe, Zheng, Guang-Lei, Zhang, Tian-Qi, Shao, Hong-Yan, Pan, Jia-Yu, Huang, Zi-Lin, Zuo, Meng-Xuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 28.01.2024
• ISSN: 1007-9327
• DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i4.318

BACKGROUND Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) has been proven to be an ideal choice for treating unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC). HAIC-based treatment showed great potential for treating uHCC. However, large-scale studies on HAIC-based treatments and meta-analyses of first-line treatments for uHCC are lacking. AIM To investigate better first-line treatment options for uHCC and to assess the safety and efficacy of HAIC combined with angiogenesis inhibitors, programmed cell death of protein 1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) blockers (triple therapy) under real-world conditions. METHODS Several electronic databases were searched to identify eligible randomized controlled trials for this meta-analysis. Study-level pooled analyses of hazard ratios (HRs) and odds ratios (ORs) were performed. This was a retrospective single-center study involving 442 patients with uHCC who received triple therapy or angiogenesis inhibitors plus PD-1/PD-L1 blockades (AIPB) at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from January 2018 to April 2023. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to balance the bias between the groups. The Kaplan-Meier method and cox regression were used to analyse the survival data, and the log-rank test was used to compare the suvival time between the groups. RESULTS A total of 13 randomized controlled trials were included. HAIC alone and in combination with sorafenib were found to be effective treatments (P values for ORs: HAIC, 0.95; for HRs: HAIC + sorafenib, 0.04). After PSM, 176 HCC patients were included in the analysis. The triple therapy group (n = 88) had a longer median overall survival than the AIPB group (n = 88) (31.6 months vs 14.6 months, P < 0.001) and a greater incidence of adverse events (94.3% vs 75.4%, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION This meta-analysis suggests that HAIC-based treatments are likely to be the best choice for uHCC. Our findings confirm that triple therapy is more effective for uHCC patients than AIPB.