Cited by 7,470Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment and PrognosisCancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersColorectal Cancer Treatments and Studies

Atezolizumab plus bevacizumab in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma

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Finn, Richard S., Qin, Shukui, Ikeda, Masafumi, Galle, Peter R., Ducreux, Michel, Kim, Tae-You, Kudo, Masatoshi, Breder, Valeriy +13 more·2020·New England Journal of Medicine

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab showed encouraging antitumor activity and safety in a phase 1b trial involving patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. METHODS: In a global, open-label, phase 3 trial, patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who had not previously received systemic treatment were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to receive either atezolizumab plus bevacizumab or sorafenib until unacceptable toxic effects occurred or there was a loss of clinical benefit. The coprimary end points were overall survival and progression-free survival in the intention-to-treat population, as assessed at an independent review facility according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors, version 1.1 (RECIST 1.1). RESULTS: The intention-to-treat population included 336 patients in the atezolizumab-bevacizumab group and 165 patients in the sorafenib group. At the time of the primary analysis (August 29, 2019), the hazard ratio for death with atezolizumab-bevacizumab as compared with sorafenib was 0.58 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.42 to 0.79; P<0.001). Overall survival at 12 months was 67.2% (95% CI, 61.3 to 73.1) with atezolizumab-bevacizumab and 54.6% (95% CI, 45.2 to 64.0) with sorafenib. Median progression-free survival was 6.8 months (95% CI, 5.7 to 8.3) and 4.3 months (95% CI, 4.0 to 5.6) in the respective groups (hazard ratio for disease progression or death, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.76; P<0.001). Grade 3 or 4 adverse events occurred in 56.5% of 329 patients who received at least one dose of atezolizumab-bevacizumab and in 55.1% of 156 patients who received at least one dose of sorafenib. Grade 3 or 4 hypertension occurred in 15.2% of patients in the atezolizumab-bevacizumab group; however, other high-grade toxic effects were infrequent. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, atezolizumab combined with bevacizumab resulted in better overall and progression-free survival outcomes than sorafenib. (Funded by F. Hoffmann-La Roche/Genentech; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03434379.).

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  • PD-L1 inhibitor-based regimens (atezolizumab plus bevacizumab and tremelimumab plus durvalumab) showed improved outcomes over sorafenib as first-line treatment for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, with median overall survival ranging from 16 months to 19 months.

    “PD-L1 inhibitor-based regimens received approvals in 2020 (atezolizumab plus bevacizumab) and 2022 (tremelimumab plus durvalumab) as first-line treatment options for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma after showing improved outcomes over sorafenib, with median overall survival ranging from 16 months to 19 months.”

    From Nivolumab plus ipilimumab versus lenvatinib or sorafenib as first-line treatment for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (CheckMate 9DW): an open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial (2025) · cites this paper as [9]

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  • With PD-L1 inhibitors in this setting, median overall survival was 19.2 months with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab, 16.6 months with durvalumab monotherapy, and 16.4 months with tremelimumab plus durvalumab.

    “With the introduction of PD-L1 inhibitors in this setting, survival benefits versus sorafenib were improved with a median overall survival of 19•2 months with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab, 9,10 16•6 months with durvalumab monotherapy, and 16•4 months with tremelimumab plus durvalumab, 7,8 leading to regulatory”

    From Nivolumab plus ipilimumab versus lenvatinib or sorafenib as first-line treatment for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (CheckMate 9DW): an open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial (2025) · cites this paper as [9]

    The citation to this paper follows the atezolizumab–bevacizumab figure, so the durvalumab figures are not assessed here. In the Efficacy section (Figure 1A; page unavailable in our copy), median overall survival for atezolizumab–bevacizumab is listed as NE (not evaluable), not 19.2 months. The paper does report significantly longer overall survival than with sorafenib. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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  • Effective systemic therapies, especially immune-checkpoint inhibitors, have substantially improved outcomes for patients with advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma.

    “Over the past two decades, the development of effective systemic therapies has substantially improved the outcomes of patients with advanced-stage HCC2–6.”

    From Adjuvant and neoadjuvant immunotherapies in hepatocellular carcinoma (2024) · cites this paper as [4]

    The Discussion reports significantly better overall and progression-free survival with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab than with sorafenib in previously untreated patients with advanced unresectable HCC. This supports improved outcomes from a systemic regimen containing a checkpoint inhibitor, but not the broader implication that checkpoint inhibitors generally produced substantial improvements over two decades: the paper says single-agent PD-1 inhibitors did not significantly improve overall survival in phase 3 studies. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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  • Atezolizumab plus bevacizumab, durvalumab plus tremelimumab, lenvatinib, and sorafenib are globally approved for first-line advanced HCC, but patients in the approval trials had not received prior adjuvant systemic therapy.

    “At present, atezolizumab plus bevacizumab4, durvalumab plus tremelimumab148, lenvatinib149 and sorafenib3 are approved globally for the first-line treatment of advanced-stage HCC, although clearly no patients in the studies that led to these approvals received previous adjuvant systemic therapy1,2,6.”

    From Adjuvant and neoadjuvant immunotherapies in hepatocellular carcinoma (2024) · cites this paper as [4]

    The Patients section (p. not available) says participants in the atezolizumab–bevacizumab trial had not previously received systemic therapy for liver cancer, supporting the statement about prior adjuvant systemic therapy for this trial. The paper establishes that this combination was studied as first-line treatment, but our copy does not establish its global approval. The other regimens have separate citations in the citing sentence and are not attributed to this paper. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • The response rate was 20% with durvalumab plus tremelimumab and 30% with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab, with median duration of response ranging from 18 months to 22 months.

    “The response rate was 20% with durvalumab plus tremelimumab and 30% with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab, with median duration of response ranging from 18 months to 22 months.”

    From Nivolumab plus ipilimumab versus lenvatinib or sorafenib as first-line treatment for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (CheckMate 9DW): an open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial (2025) · cites this paper as [9]

    The Efficacy section reports atezolizumab–bevacizumab response rates of 27.3% by RECIST 1.1 and 33.2% by mRECIST, broadly consistent with the claim’s approximately 30%. Our copy does not report a 20% response rate for durvalumab–tremelimumab or a median duration of response of 18–22 months; it reports the proportion of responses lasting more than six months instead (page unavailable). (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. [4]4. Kudo M, Finn RS, Qin S, et al. Lenva tinib versus sorafenib in firstline treat ment of patients with unresectable hepa tocellular carcinoma: a randomised phase 3 noninferiority trial. Lancet 2018; 391: 116373.
  2. [5]5. Zhu AX, Finn RS, Edeline J, et al. Pem brolizumab in patients with advanced he patocellular carcinoma previously treated with sorafenib (KEYNOTE224): a non randomised, openlabel phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncol 2018; 19: 94052.
  3. [6]6. ElKhoueiry AB, Sangro B, Yau T, et al. Nivolumab in patients with advanced he patocellular carcinoma (CheckMate 040): an openlabel, noncomparative, phase 1/2 dose escalation and expansion trial. Lan cet 2017; 389: 2492502.
  4. [7]7. Finn RS, Ryoo BY, Merle P, et al. Pem brolizumab as secondline therapy in pa tients with advanced hepatocellular carci noma in KEYNOTE240: a randomized, doubleblind, phase III trial. J Clin Oncol 2020; 38: 193202.
  5. [13]13. Voron T, Colussi O, Marcheteau E, et al. VEGFA modulates expression of inhibi tory checkpoints on CD8+ T cells in tu mors. J Exp Med 2015; 212: 13948.
  6. [14]14. Wallin JJ, Bendell JC, Funke R, et al. Atezolizumab in combination with beva cizumab enhances antigenspecific Tcell migration in metastatic renal cell carci noma. Nat Commun 2016; 7: 12624.
  7. [15]15. Hegde PS, Wallin JJ, Mancao C. Pre dictive markers of antiVEGF and emerg ing role of angiogenesis inhibitors as im munotherapeutics. Semin Cancer Biol 2018; 52: 11724.
  8. [17]17. Herbst RS, Soria JC, Kowanetz M, et al. Predictive correlates of response to the antiPDL1 antibody MPDL3280A in cancer patients. Nature 2014; 515: 5637.

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Authors
Finn, R. S., Qin, S., Ikeda, M., Galle, P. R., Ducreux, M., Kim, T.-Y., Kudo, M., Breder, V., Merle, P., Kaseb, A. O., Li, D., Verret, W., Xu, D.-Z., Hernandez, S., Liu, J., Huang, C., Mulla, S., Wang, Y., Lim, H. Y., Zhu, A. X., & Cheng, A.-L.
Affiliations
  • City Of Hope National Medical Center (US)
  • F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (CH)
Venue
New England Journal of Medicine
Published
2020-05-14
Volume
382
Issue
20
Pages
1894-1905
ISSN
  • 0028-4793 (ISSN-L)
  • 1533-4406
OpenAlex
W3025022288
Cited by
7,470
References
28
Citations by year
2026: 1069 · 2025: 1255 · 2024: 1288 · 2023: 1299 · 2022: 1227 · 2021: 1031 · 2020: 289 · 2019: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2014: 1
FWCI
566.07
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • New England Journal of Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
Funders
F. Hoffmann-La Roche
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Hepatology › Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment and Prognosis
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Colorectal Cancer Treatments and Studies
Keywords
atezolizumab, bevacizumab, hepatocellular carcinoma, unresectable liver cancer, sorafenib, immune checkpoint inhibitors, anti-VEGF therapy, combination therapy, overall survival, progression-free survival, hypertension, immune-related adverse events, first-line therapy, RECIST 1.1, anticancer activity
MeSH terms
Bevacizumab, Aged, Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols, Female, Carcinoma, Hepatocellular, Humans, Liver Neoplasms, Male, Middle Aged, Quality of Life, Survival Analysis, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Intention to Treat Analysis, Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized

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