Lenvatinib, toripalimab plus hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy in patients with high-risk advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: A biomolecular exploratory, phase II trial.

Introduction: The combination of lenvatinib, toripalimab and hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) with oxaliplatin, leucovorin, and 5-fluorouracil (FOLFOX) suggested encouraging antitumour activity in our retrospective study. We hereby prospectively establish the efficacy, safety and predictive biomarkers of the combination therapy as a first-line treatment in patients with high-risk advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Materials And Methods: This phase II, single-centre, single-arm trial enrolled advanced HCC participants with high-risk. Of 51 screened participants, 36 received lenvatinib, toripalimab plus FOLFOX-HAIC. Participants received 21-day treatment cycles of lenvatinib, toripalimab, and FOLFOX-HAIC. The primary end-point was the progression-free survival (PFS) rate per RECIST at six months.

Results: Thirty-six participants (86.1% with high-risk features) were enrolled in our study. The primary end-point was met with a PFS rate of 80.6% (95% CI, 64.0%-91.8%) at six months. The median PFS was 10.4 months (95% CI, 5.8-15.0), and the median OS was not reached at the prespecified final analysis and was 17.9 months (95% CI, 14.5-21.3) after follow-up was extended. The ORR per RECIST was 63.9%, and per mRECIST was 66.7%. The median duration of response was 14.4 months (95% CI, 8.9-19.9). The most common adverse events were thrombocytopenia, elevated aspartate aminotransferase, and hypertension, and no treatment-related death was reported. Participants with low levels of both CCL28 and BTC had unsatisfactory prognosis.

Conclusions: Lenvatinib, toripalimab and FOLFOX-HAIC showed safe and encouraging antitumour activity for advanced HCC with high-risk features. The levels of CCL28 and BTC might be the predictive biomarkers for the triple combination therapy.