Treatment Landscape for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Evolves at Rapid Pace

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the evolution of the treatment landscape in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

The treatment landscape for HCC has evolved very rapidly, says Abou-Alfa, especially over the last few years. Treatment has been very dependent on local therapy in HCC as there was no evidence for systemic therapy enhancing survival. However, this changed markedly with the introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) sorafenib (Nexavar).

Sorafenib showed an improvement in survival compared with placebo, which led to physicians becoming dependent on this TKI for close to a decade. Abou-Alfa explains. New advances have now come into play with different TKIs, as well as the promise of checkpoint inhibition, which have demonstrated promise as combination regimens.