Nithya Krishnamurthy BA , Daniel Cherry MD , Carlos Rodriguez-Russo MD , Michael Buckstein MD
{"title":"Concurrent Radiation and Immunotherapy for Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma With Extensive Portal Vein Tumor Thrombus","authors":"Nithya Krishnamurthy BA , Daniel Cherry MD , Carlos Rodriguez-Russo MD , Michael Buckstein MD","doi":"10.1016/j.adro.2025.101856","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Purpose</h3><div>While immunotherapy has been established as the standard of care for patients with Barcelona Clinic for Liver Cancer class C hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), outcomes for patients with portal vein thrombus (PVT) remain poor. This study evaluates the benefit of radiation therapy (RT) in addition to immunotherapy for patients with advanced PVT.</div></div><div><h3>Methods and Materials</h3><div>A retrospective chart screen was performed to identify patients with HCC with PVT treated with definitive RT with concurrent (defined as within 6 weeks) immunotherapy. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to assess progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Cox proportional hazard modeling was employed for each covariate using R software version 4.3.3.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Sixty-two patients met the inclusion criteria from 2016 to 2023. The median follow-up was 18.9 months. Most patients were male (85.8%), with a median age of 64, and 61% had Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) A liver function. Treatments included stereotactic body RT (61%) or fractionated RT (39%) with immunotherapy (74% single-agent). Portal vein tumor thrombosis classifications were Vp3 (47%) and Vp4 (45%). Median overall PFS was 3.70 months, and OS was 7.7 months. Patients with CTP A had better outcomes (PFS 5.3 months, OS 10.2 months; PFS hazard ratio 2.13, OS hazard ratio 3.08, <em>P</em> < .05). There was no significant difference in PFS or OS for patients who received single-agent immunotherapy with radiation versus multiagent immunotherapy (atezolizumab-bevacizumab) with radiation. Multivariate analysis identified no other significant predictors.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>The addition of radiation to immunotherapy may improve outcomes for patients with advanced PVT with HCC who have inferior outcomes with immunotherapy alone. Particularly for patients with CTP A liver function who would be eligible for clinical trials, the addition of radiation may improve OS beyond reported outcomes. Prospective studies are needed to verify these results.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7390,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Radiation Oncology","volume":"10 10","pages":"Article 101856"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Advances in Radiation Oncology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452109425001435","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ONCOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose
While immunotherapy has been established as the standard of care for patients with Barcelona Clinic for Liver Cancer class C hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), outcomes for patients with portal vein thrombus (PVT) remain poor. This study evaluates the benefit of radiation therapy (RT) in addition to immunotherapy for patients with advanced PVT.
Methods and Materials
A retrospective chart screen was performed to identify patients with HCC with PVT treated with definitive RT with concurrent (defined as within 6 weeks) immunotherapy. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to assess progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Cox proportional hazard modeling was employed for each covariate using R software version 4.3.3.
Results
Sixty-two patients met the inclusion criteria from 2016 to 2023. The median follow-up was 18.9 months. Most patients were male (85.8%), with a median age of 64, and 61% had Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) A liver function. Treatments included stereotactic body RT (61%) or fractionated RT (39%) with immunotherapy (74% single-agent). Portal vein tumor thrombosis classifications were Vp3 (47%) and Vp4 (45%). Median overall PFS was 3.70 months, and OS was 7.7 months. Patients with CTP A had better outcomes (PFS 5.3 months, OS 10.2 months; PFS hazard ratio 2.13, OS hazard ratio 3.08, P < .05). There was no significant difference in PFS or OS for patients who received single-agent immunotherapy with radiation versus multiagent immunotherapy (atezolizumab-bevacizumab) with radiation. Multivariate analysis identified no other significant predictors.
Conclusions
The addition of radiation to immunotherapy may improve outcomes for patients with advanced PVT with HCC who have inferior outcomes with immunotherapy alone. Particularly for patients with CTP A liver function who would be eligible for clinical trials, the addition of radiation may improve OS beyond reported outcomes. Prospective studies are needed to verify these results.
期刊介绍:
The purpose of Advances is to provide information for clinicians who use radiation therapy by publishing: Clinical trial reports and reanalyses. Basic science original reports. Manuscripts examining health services research, comparative and cost effectiveness research, and systematic reviews. Case reports documenting unusual problems and solutions. High quality multi and single institutional series, as well as other novel retrospective hypothesis generating series. Timely critical reviews on important topics in radiation oncology, such as side effects. Articles reporting the natural history of disease and patterns of failure, particularly as they relate to treatment volume delineation. Articles on safety and quality in radiation therapy. Essays on clinical experience. Articles on practice transformation in radiation oncology, in particular: Aspects of health policy that may impact the future practice of radiation oncology. How information technology, such as data analytics and systems innovations, will change radiation oncology practice. Articles on imaging as they relate to radiation therapy treatment.