Tislelizumab plus tyrosine kinase inhibitors with TACE improves survival in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma with clinical predictors and manageable safety

TL;DR

Adding TACE to tislelizumab and TKIs improves survival in unresectable HCC, especially for older patients with certain biomarkers, though it increases manageable side effects.

Contribution

Demonstrates that combining TACE with tislelizumab-TKIs improves survival in unresectable HCC and identifies clinical predictors of benefit.

Findings

CTG significantly improved median OS and PFS compared to STG after PSM.

Patients aged ≥60 years, without extrahepatic spread, and with AFP <400 ng/mL had maximal CTG benefit.

CTG had higher adverse events but they were primarily manageable.

Abstract

The survival benefit of adding transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) to systemic therapy (tislelizumab plus tyrosine kinase inhibitors [TKIs]) for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) requires validation. This retrospective study compared the efficacy and safety of tislelizumab-TKIs with or without TACE and identified clinical predictors of benefit.

This retrospective analysis included 283 unresectable HCC patients: systemic therapy alone (STG, n=98; tislelizumab plus TKIs) versus combination therapy (CTG, n=185; tislelizumab plus TKIs and TACE). Primary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), analyzed by Cox regression. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to reduce baseline differences between the two groups.

After PSM, CTG significantly improved median OS (22.5 [95% confidence interval (CI): 19.0–34.4] vs. 14.0 [12.1–18.6] months; hazard ratio (HR) 0.53, p<0.001) and PFS (14.6 [12.1–19.1] vs. 9.5 [7.8–12.5] months; HR 0.59, p<0.001) versus STG. Multivariate analysis identified independent predictors of poor OS: age <60 years, extrahepatic spread, portal vein thrombus, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) ≥400 ng/mL, and elevated gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT). Subgroups with maximal CTG benefit included patients aged ≥60 years, no extrahepatic spread, AFP <400 ng/mL, and normal GGT. CTG had higher all-grade adverse events (79.6% vs. 67.0%, p=0.021) and grade ≥3 events (23.5% vs. 14.1%, p=0.038), primarily manageable liver toxicity and hematological abnormalities.

Combining TACE with tislelizumab-TKIs significantly improves survival over systemic therapy alone in unresectable HCC, with maximal benefit observed in patients aged ≥60 years, without extrahepatic spread, with AFP <400 ng/mL, or normal GGT, despite increased manageable toxicity.

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