Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Oct 15, 2023; 15(10): 1796-1806
Published online Oct 15, 2023. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v15.i10.1796
Real-world clinical effectiveness of sorafenib among patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma at two centers in the United States
Daneng Li, Stephen B Gruber, Shrividya Iyer, Sanjay Gupta, Mohamedtaki Tejani
Daneng Li, Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA 91010, United States
Stephen B Gruber, Center for Precision Medicine, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA 91010, United States
Shrividya Iyer, Sanjay Gupta, Department of Oncology, Worldwide Real-World Evidence, Eisai Inc., Nutley, NJ 07110, United States
Mohamedtaki Tejani, Department of Oncology and Hematology, Advent Health Cancer Institute, Orlando, FL 32804, United States
Author contributions: Li D, Gruber SB, and Tejani M contributed to study design, data collection, data interpretation, and manuscript development; Iyer S and Gupta S contributed to study design, data interpretation, and manuscript development; all authors read and approved the final version.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committees of Advent Health Orlando and City of Hope.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was not required for this study as it was a retrospective analysis and data were de-identified prior to analysis. Waivers for informed consent were provided by each site’s Institutional Review Board.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr.Li reports personal fees and other from AstraZeneca, other from Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics, personal fees from Adagene, personal fees from Coherus, personal fees from Delcath, personal fees from Eisai, personal fees from Exelixis, personal fees from Genentech, personal fees from Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals, personal fees from Merck, personal fees from Servier, personal fees from Sumitomo Pharma, and personal fees from TerSera Therapeutics, outside the submitted work.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
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: Daneng Li, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, 1500 E. Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010, United States. danli@coh.org
Received: May 31, 2023
Peer-review started: May 31, 2023
First decision: June 26, 2023
Revised: July 7, 2023
Accepted: September 1, 2023
Article in press: September 1, 2023
Published online: October 15, 2023
Processing time: 131 Days and 15.2 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Sorafenib has been approved for use in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC) patients for more than a decade. As other therapies have been approved in recent years for uHCC treatment in later lines, it is essential to assess clinical effectiveness of older therapies in actual clinical practice to inform healthcare practitioners’ decisions for better patient care.

Research motivation

Limited recent data on real-world clinical effectiveness of sorafenib in diverse clinical practice settings in the United States.

Research objectives

To assess clinical effectiveness of sorafenib as first-line (1L) therapy in uHCC patients treated in both academic and community practice settings in the United States.

Research methods

In a retrospective observational study we assessed clinical outcomes including best response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) among adult uHCC patients (≥ 18 years) in the United States initiating 1L sorafenib monotherapy at City of Hope (academic) and Advent Health (community practice) between January 2016 and December 2019.

Research results

Median time to treatment discontinuation was 2.3 mo. Overall, 103 patients (77%) had disease progression or died during sorafenib therapy. Median PFS was 2.9 mo and median OS was 8.5 mo.

Research conclusions

Median PFS and OS of sorafenib in 1L uHCC were < 3 mo and < 9 mo, respectively.

Research perspectives

Newer therapeutic options that have reported higher PFS and OS in real-world clinical practice should be considered to enhance patient outcomes.