Alqahtani SA, Colombo MG. Current status of first-line therapy, anti-angiogenic therapy and its combinations of other agents for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma . World J Gastrointest Oncol 2021; 13(12): 2038-2049 [PMID: 35070040 DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i12.2038]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Massimo G Colombo, MD, Professor, Liver Center, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Via Olgettina 60, Milan 20132, Italy. mcolombo46@yahoo.it
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Dec 15, 2021; 13(12): 2038-2049 Published online Dec 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i12.2038
Current status of first-line therapy, anti-angiogenic therapy and its combinations of other agents for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma
Saleh A Alqahtani, Massimo G Colombo
Saleh A Alqahtani, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21287, United States
Saleh A Alqahtani, Liver Transplant Center, and Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Scientific Computing Department, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia
Massimo G Colombo, Liver Center, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan 20132, Italy
Author contributions: Both the authors contributed equally in conception, literature review, drafting, editing, revising, finalizing, and submitting the manuscript to the journal.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
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: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Massimo G Colombo, MD, Professor, Liver Center, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Via Olgettina 60, Milan 20132, Italy. mcolombo46@yahoo.it
Received: February 15, 2021 Peer-review started: February 15, 2021 First decision: March 15, 2021 Revised: March 24, 2021 Accepted: October 15, 2021 Article in press: October 15, 2021 Published online: December 15, 2021 Processing time: 302 Days and 9.2 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Recently, an immunotherapy-based combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab was shown to prolong survival compared to sorafenib in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma patients who did not receive prior therapy. In addition, the combination of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab has yielded promising results in the same patient setting. This review article summarizes the results obtained with sorafenib and lenvatinib in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma in pivotal clinical trials and real-world studies. We offer guidance on the optimal choice between sorafenib or lenvatinib in an individual patient and discuss the immunotherapy-based combination, which will likely make the choice between sorafenib and lenvatinib somewhat obsolete.
