Copyright
©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Aug 27, 2022; 14(8): 1608-1620
Published online Aug 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i8.1608
Published online Aug 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i8.1608
Real-life multi-center retrospective analysis on nivolumab in difficult-to-treat patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma
Nika De Wilde, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Ghent, Ghent 9000, Belgium
Luisa Vonghia, Sven Francque, Ali Bagdadi, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital Antwerp, Antwerp 2650, Belgium
Thomas De Somer, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Maria Middelares Hospital, Ghent 9000, Belgium
Eva Staub, Department of Psychiatry, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels 1050, Belgium
Jasper Lambrechts, Department of Orthopedics, University of Ghent, Ghent 9000, Belgium
Ana-Maria Bucalau, Gontran Verset, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatopancreatology and Digestive Oncology, CUB Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels 1070, Belgium
Christophe Van Steenkiste, Department of Gastroenterology, AZ Maria Middelares, Ghent 9000, Belgium
Christophe Van Steenkiste, Department of Gastroenterology, University Antwerp, Antwerp 2650, Belgium
Author contributions: De Wilde N merged the dataset, executed the statistical analysis, wrote the manuscript and performed the revision; Verset G, Van Steenkiste C, Vonghia L were the supporting co-promotors in the entire process and provided the data; Francque S and De Somer T did a profound revision of the manuscript; Staub E and Bagdadi A helped with the partial composition of the dataset; Lambrechts J prepared the figures. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: Approval of the ethics committee of the University Hospital of Antwerp, Belgium was obtained (EC number 21/06/080) and is attached. Our study conforms to the recognized standards of the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants were above 16 years of age.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no competing interests to declare for all authors.
Data sharing statement: Data available from the first author at nika.dewilde@ugent.be. Consent for data sharing was not obtained from the study participants, but the presented data are anonymized and risk of identification is low.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Gontran Verset, MMed, Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatopancreatology and Digestive Oncology, CUB Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Route de Lennik 808, Brussels 1070, Belgium. gontran.verset@erasme.ulb.ac.be
Received: April 15, 2022
Peer-review started: April 15, 2022
First decision: May 12, 2022
Revised: May 27, 2022
Accepted: July 31, 2022
Article in press: July 31, 2022
Published online: August 27, 2022
Processing time: 132 Days and 20.5 Hours
Peer-review started: April 15, 2022
First decision: May 12, 2022
Revised: May 27, 2022
Accepted: July 31, 2022
Article in press: July 31, 2022
Published online: August 27, 2022
Processing time: 132 Days and 20.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: We conducted a study on the real-world effectiveness of nivolumab (immunotherapy) in patients with advanced liver cancer who were ineligible for the standard of care or other validated treatments, including patients with impaired liver function and a poor general condition, a population that is usually not included in studies. We showed a reduction of tumor mass in 24.1% of patients, with a disappearance of tumor mass in 13.9% of patients, which is better than that reported in the literature. Furthermore, we confirmed the favorable safety profile of nivolumab. Hence, nivolumab should be considered as a valuable treatment option in selected patients who are otherwise not eligible for treatment.