Liver Cancer

Treating patients with liver cancer initially with Lenvima instead of the standard of care was associated with a survival benefit, according to recent research.

The use of a minimally invasive procedure — known as trans-arterial chemoembolization — plus Lenvima and a PD-1 checkpoint blockade drug proved to be safe and efficacious in patients with unresectable advanced liver cancer.

The use of immunotherapy in patients with advanced cancers and decreased fitness levels or organ function increased from 2014 to 2019, although trials for this treatment typically exclude this population.

CURE® took a look back at our most-read liver cancer stories from this year.

External-beam radiation, a noninvasive option for bridging therapy, may be underused compared with other liver-directed therapies and may highlight a treatment gap in this area.

Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation volunteer Lourdes Rocha leads the Veterans Program and shares her experience filing claims with the VA in a recorded webinar.

Patients who experience side effects due to immune checkpoint inhibitors are 80% more likely to go to the emergency room and have 30% higher monthly medical costs, compared to patients who did not have side effects.

Data from a phase 3 trial show that frontline tremelimumab plus Imfinzi improved overall survival in patients with liver cancer.

The results, according to one of the study’s authors, indicate that liver cancer is an underrecognized and deadly cancer that is increasingly affecting people living in rural areas of the United States.

The new approach of chemotherapy plus Opdivo offers “the best of both treatment approaches,” says one expert.

Results from the study highlight the need to organize better screening and treatment plans for patients with liver cancer coinfected with hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV.

The FDA approval of Tibsovo marks the first targeted therapy for patients with this liver cancer subtype.

Tibsovo — which is the first targeted therapy approved for this patient population — improved survival in patients with a subtype of liver cancer.

The results, according to the study authors, demonstrate a need to better inform older patients during treatment about survivorship after liver cancer.

Opdivo was granted an accelerated approval for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, but the indication was pulled after follow-up data failed to show that the agent improved survival over another drug.

Patients whose disease contained the osteopontin protein tended to have more aggressive liver cancer that did not respond to treatment.

Screening and diagnostic procedures for liver cancer as well as transplant programs and curative/palliative treatments were modified or delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new survey says.

Most people surveyed knew about the link between alcohol and liver cancer, but far fewer knew that drinking could increase breast cancer risk, too.

Treatment with the combination of Stivarga and Bavencio was associated with minor anti-tumor activity in patients with advanced, heavily pretreated biliary tract solid tumors.

Onivyde combined with a chemotherapy agent and a chemotherapy-protective drug should be used as a second-line treatment option in patients with metastatic liver cancer, according to an expert.

The Food and Drug Administration has had a busy couple of weeks, approving several agents to treat a variety of cancers. Here are five recent approvals that patients with cancer may have missed.

The FDA approved a kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adults with previously treated, unresectable locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with FGFR2 fusion or other arrangement.

The study results, according to the authors, suggest that the combination of folinic acid plus the chemotherapies fluorouracil and oxaliplatin should become the standard-of-care therapy in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer whose disease progressed with cisplatin and gemcitabine.

Twenty percent of patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma had a significant amount of cell death when receiving Libtayo before surgical intervention.

Interim results from a phase 2 study demonstrated that patients inoperable or advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcoma and a FGFR2 gene mutation had a disease control rate of 79% when treated with derazantinib.

Members of an FDA committee recently voted in favor of upholding Keytruda’s accelerated approval indication for the treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who had previously received treatment with Nexavar. However, the committee narrowly voted against maintaining Opdivo’s accelerated approval in the same patient population.

As part of the “Speaking Out” video series, CURE® spoke with Dr. Laura M. Kulik about the basics of liver cancer, highlighting the need for a multidisciplinary approach to care.

Here is a list of some recent trials that launched within the cancer space in April.

A 500 mg dose of Tepmetko, a MET inhibitor, in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who were previously treated with Nexavar led to a 12-week progression-free survival rate of 63.3%.

Patients with this liver cancer subtype do not need to be hospitalized to receive this treatment and, according to the agent’s manufacturer, Boston Scientific, can typically receive the therapy in approximately an hour during an outpatient procedure.