Xiaowei Li,* Kunkun Cao,* Zhigang Fu,* Xiaoxia Chen, Jiaming Zhong, Li Liu, Ning Ding, Xiaoli Zhang, Zengqiang Qu, Lijun Zhu, Jian Zhai

Department II of Interventional Radiology, Shanghai Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Shanghai, 200438, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Jian Zhai; Lijun Zhu, Department II of Interventional Radiology, Shanghai Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Shanghai, 200438, People’s Republic of China, Email jianzhai1979@126.com; lijun_zhush@163.com

Purpose: To assess the activity and toxicity of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC)+tislelizumab+lenvatinib (HAIC+tisle+len) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) type IV (Vp4 hCC) in a real-world context.
Methods: Fifty-five patients, with Vp4 hCC receiving HAIC+tisle+len therapy from April 2021 to December 2022, were analyzed retrospectively. Data on patient characteristics, adverse events (AEs), treatment, and survival were collected. Outcomes were disease control rate (DCR), overall response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and treatment-related AEs (TRAEs).
Results: As of December 20, 2023, the median follow-up was 17.5 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 14.7– 22.5). The ORR was 52.7% (3 complete response [CR], 26 partial response [PR]) as per RECIST v1.1 and 65.5% (12 CR, 24 PR) as per mRECIST. The DCR was 94.5% using both RECIST v1.1 and mRECIST. The median PFS and the median OS were 8.0 months (95% CI: 6.2– 12.3) and 16.7 months (95% CI: 12.0-not reached), respectively. Additionally, PFS was independently predicted only by the best tumor response. In patients with the best tumor response (PR or CR), the median PFS was 11.7 months (95% CI: 8.02-not reached) by mRECIST and 15.4 months (95% CI: 7.39-not reached) by RECIST v1.1. Hypertension (14.5%), decreased albumin levels (10.9%) and anorexia (9.1%) were the most frequently observed grade 3– 4 TRAEs.
Conclusion: HAIC+tisle+len regimen demonstrated a promising efficacy and favorable safety for patients with HCC and Vp4, providing valuable real-world evidence to complement the trial data for Vp4 hCC.

Keywords: tislelizumab, portal vein tumor thrombus, lenvatinib, hepatocellular carcinoma, hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy