The Impact of Sorafenib in Combination with Intermittent Hepatic Arterial Infusion Chemotherapy for Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Major Vascular Invasion

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of sorafenib and intermittent hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy with cisplatin for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with severe portal vein invasion. The antitumor effect was a complete response in 1 of 38 patients, a partial response in 12 patients, stable disease in 16 patients, and progressive disease in 9 patients, for a 34.2% response rate and a 76.3% disease control rate. This regimen had favorable efficacy and acceptable safety and may be feasible for unresectable HCC with severe portal vein invasion.

Keywords:

• Sorafenib
• hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy
• unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma
• portal vein invasion

Author contributions

MK drafted and wrote the manuscript. KY contributed to the statistical analysis. HM, MI, HK, KM, MN, SK, TY, KY and MS participated in the study design and helped draft the manuscript. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the findings and read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Kansai Medical University (IRB number: 744-1). Written informed consent was obtained from all patients and their families before treatments were performed.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.