For patients with high-risk hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), adjuvant therapy with two monoclonal antibodies
prolongs recurrence-free survival (RFS), according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American
Association for Cancer Research. Pierce Chow, MBBS, PhD, and colleagues examined the efficacy of the
combination in the adjuvant setting in delaying or preventing recurrence in patients with high-risk HCC
following resection or ablation. Patients were randomly assigned to receive the combination for 1 year or
17 cycles total (N=334; arm A) or to active surveillance (N=334; arm B). Patients in arm B were eligible
for crossover following confirmed recurrence. The primary endpoint of RFS was met(HR, 0.72 at interim
analysis; median follow-up,17.4 months), and investigator-assessed RFS was similar (HR, 0.70). Safety was
consistent with the well-established profiles of each therapeutic agent. “These positive results address
a huge and urgent unmet clinical need in HCC,” Dr. Chow said in a statement.
