Oncology News

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer worldwide. Individuals who have been diagnosed with hepatitis B, hepatitis C or cirrhosis have the highest risk for developing HCC. While the incidence rate decreased among younger and middle-aged adults between 1992 and 2015, the overall incidence rate of HCC in the United States increased from 4.1 cases per 100,000 people in 1992 to 9.5 in 2015.

Thomas A. Abrams, MD, senior physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, spoke with Healio about treatment options for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. He discusses first-line treatment, guidance on aspirin use and important, recent FDA approvals.

A novel armored chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy targeting the glypican-3 protein showed antitumor activity among children with advanced liver cancer, according to preliminary results of a phase 1 trial presented at the virtual American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Annual Meeting.

Regular use of aspirin appeared to reduce the risk for several digestive tract cancers, according to results of a meta-analysis published in Annals of Oncology.

Atezolizumab in combination with bevacizumab improved OS and PFS compared with sorafenib among patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, according to results of the randomized phase 3 IMbrave150 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The FDA granted orphan drug designation to MIV-818 for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

The FDA granted accelerated approval to pemigatinib for treatment of certain adults with previously treated unresectable cholangiocarcinoma.

Primary liver cancer rates continue to increase in many regions of the world despite extensive efforts to prevent the disease, according to study results published in Cancer.

Low-dose aspirin use appeared associated with significantly lower risk for hepatocellular carcinoma and lower liver-related mortality among patients with chronic viral hepatitis, according to results of a retrospective study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The FDA granted accelerated approval to nivolumab plus ipilimumab for treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who previously received sorafenib.