Second-line therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with regorafenib or cabozantinib: Multicenter French clinical experience in real-life after matching

Table 2 Patient characteristics prior to second-line treatment with cabometyx or regorafenib (without matching)

Characteristics at baseline	Cabozantinib (n = 28)	Regorafenib (n = 58)	P value
Age–median (Q1Q3), yr	68 (60-73)	68 (62.74)	0.6828
Gender, n (%)			0.4645
Male	24 (86)	53 (91)
Female	4 (14)	5 (9)
Etiology of HCC, n (%)			0.4219
Alcohol use	6 (21)	24 (41)
Virus/virus + alcohol	10 (36)/4 (14)	16 (28)/4 (7)
NASH	5 (18)	8 (14)
Other	3 (11)	6 (10)
PS, n (%)			0.6286
0	12 (44)	21 (38)
1	9 (32)	25 (43)
2	7 (24)	12 (20)
Esophageal varices1, n (%)	12 (44)	24 (45)	0.9432
Macrovascular invasion, n (%)	13 (46)	28 (51)	0.6995
Extrahepatic disease, n (%)	10 (36)	27 (50)	0.2177
Child-Pugh class, n (%)			1.0000
A	21 (75)	44 (76)
B	7 (25)	14 (24)
BCLC, n (%)			0.2375
B	7 (25)	8 (14)
C	21 (75)	50 (86)
AFP, ng/mL, n (%)			0.4468
< 400	13 (46)	32 (55)
≥ 400	15 (54)	26 (45)
Morphology2, n (%)			0.0830
Diffuse	7 (26)	8 (14)
Mass forming	4 (15)	20 (36)
Multinodular	16 (59)	28 (50)
Maximal tumor diameter, mm–median (Q1Q3)	69.5 (37.5-118.5)	68.5 (40-100)	0.7495
Hemoglobin, g/dL–median (Q1Q3)	13.3 (12-14)	13 (11-14.7)	0.9730
Platelet’s count (× 100/L)–median (Q1Q3)	136 (94-197)	173 (97-215)	0.2582
Neutrophil count/L-median (Q1Q3)	3118 (2120-3720)	4081 (3000-5668)	0.0042
Lymphocyte count/L–median (Q1Q3)	1130 (820-1675)	1105 (810-1643)	0.7723
Neutrophil-to- lymphocyte ratio, n (%)			0.0217
≤ 3	18 (64)	22 (38)
> 3	10 (36)	36 (62)
CRP, mg/L–median (Q1Q3)	14.5 (6.7-36.2)	29.7 (8.3-58)	0.1665
AST, IU/L–median (Q1Q3)	73 (52-132)	59 (41-95)	0.0681
ALT, IU/L–median (Q1Q3)	47 (33-73)	37 (26-51)	0.0970
GGT, IU/L–median (Q1Q3)	150 (100-350)	194 (117-362)	0.3538
ALP, IU/L–median (Q1Q3)	159 (137-231)	182 (122-269)	0.6232
Total bilirubin, μmol/L–median (Q1Q3)	21 (14-29)	17 (11-25)	0.1135
Albumin, g/L–median (Q1Q3)	36 (31-39)	34 (29-40)	0.7476
Creatinine, μmol/L–median (Q1Q3)	67 (55-87)	71 (57-84)	0.6051
Prothrombin time, %–median (Q1Q3)	81 (68-99)	78 (68-88)	0.1878
Duration of prior Sorafenib treatment, months–median (Q1Q3)	3 (2-4)	4 (2.9-11.8)	0.0226

¹Esophageal varices, Cabozantinib (CBZ): Missing data n = 1; Regorafenib (REG): Missing data n = 5.

²Hepatocellular carcinoma morphology, patients with metastatic recurrence and without intrahepatic tumor, CBZ n = 1, REG n = 2.

HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; NASH: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis; PS: Performance Status; BCLC: Barcelona clinic liver cancer; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; CRP: C-reactive protein; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; GGT: γ-glutamyl transpeptidase; ALP: Alkaline phosphatase.