The Promise of Tislelizumab in Unresectable HCC

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the use of tislelizumab as treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), as investigated in a phase 2 clinical trial (NCT02407990).

Results from the study were positive and showed the potential of tislelizumab to full an unmet medical need for new therapies to treat unresectable HCC.

0:08 | We're quite excited tislelizumab as another anti-PD-1, but with a very important specificity and regard to its mechanisms of action have been evaluated in this phase2 study and led to the finding of important results, among which is an increase response rate of close to about 13%. With importantly, 2 complete responses and 29 partial responses. And if anything, this translated into improvement in outcome, over a medium follow-up close to about 9 to 10 months.

0:51 | Median overall survival was 12.4 months and median progression-free survival was 2.7 months. It is important to note the 1-year overall survival was close to 52%. No doubt that this is very encouraging, especially that the therapy was tolerable. And of course, we look forward to the results of the ongoing randomized phase 3 trial evaluating tislelizumab compared to the standard, sorafenib, as first-line therapy for patients with advanced unresectable HCC.