ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Hepatobiliary Diseases
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1574295
Efficacy of Various Sequences of Transcatheter arterial Chemoembolization Combined with PD-1 Inhibitors in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Retrospective Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xiamen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Xiamen, China
- 2Department of radiation oncology, Xiamen womens and children’s hospital, xiamen, China
- 3Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China
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We aimed to explore whether the diverse sequences of Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization (TACE) combined with Programmed Death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors impact the prognosis of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).In this single-center retrospective study, we collected data from patients with advanced HCC who underwent TACE combined with PD-1 inhibitors and categorized them into a group treated with PD-1 inhibitors after TACE (T+P) and a group treated with TACE after PD-1 inhibitors (P+T). Kaplan-Meier and logistic analyses were used to investigate the differences in treatment efficacy.Ultimately, a total of 27 eligible patients were included in this study. Among them, 8 patients (29.6%) were in Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer(BCLC) stage B, 19 patients were in stage C, 22 patients (81.5%) were in Child-Pugh stage A, five patients were in stage B,15 patients (55.6%) were in the P+T group, and 12 patients (44.4%) were in the T+P group. After a median follow-up of 5.0 months (1.8-17.3), all patients exhibited disease progression. According to the RECIST v1.1 criteria, the 6-month Disease Control Rate (DCR) in the T+P group and the P+T group was 58.3% and 20% (p = 0.048); the median Progression-Free Survival (PFS) in the two groups was 6.0 months (95% CI 5.32-6.67) and 4.2 months(95%CI 2.91-5.4)(HR, 2.59; 95% CI 1.10-6.10, p = 0.029).The effect of the T+P treatment was superior to that of the P+T treatment. Different sequences of TACE combined with PD-1 inhibitors influence the prognosis of patients with advanced HCC.
Keywords: Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, PD-1 inhibitors, liver cancer, sequence
Received: 10 Feb 2025; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhu, Hu, Wang and Yin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Heping Zhu, Xiamen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Xiamen, China
Zhenyu Yin, Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China
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