Key clinical point: Immunotherapy was associated with prolonged survival compared with chemotherapy in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Major finding: After adjusting for confounding variables, immunotherapy was independently associated with improved overall survival (adjusted hazard ratio 0.76; 95% CI 0.65-0.88) compared with chemotherapy.
Study details: Findings are from a retrospective cohort study that included 3990 patients with advanced HCC (tumor-node-metastasis stage III or IV) from the National Cancer Database who received chemotherapy (n = 3248) or immunotherapy (n = 742) as the first-line systemic treatment.
Disclosures: No funding source was reported. Some authors declared serving as consultants or advisors or receiving institutional research support from various organizations.
Source: Ahn JC et al. Racial and ethnic disparities in early treatment with immunotherapy for advanced HCC in the United States. Hepatology. 2022 (Apr 16). Doi: 10.1002/hep.32527