Comparative efficacy and safety of atezolizumab and bevacizumab between hepatocellular carcinoma patients with viral and non-viral infection: A Japanese multicenter observational study

Aim This study compared the efficacy and safety of atezolizumab and bevacizumab (Atez/Bev) in patients with viral and non-viral infection in clinical settings. Methods We conducted the retrospective cohort study of 323 BCLC stage B or C hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with Child-Pugh class A, and a performance status of 0 or 1 who started Atez/Bev from September 2020 to December 2021 at 22 institutions in Japan. Patients with viral infection was defined as those who were either serum anti-HCV- Ab or HBs-Ag-positive, while patients with non-viral infection was defined as those who were both serum anti-HCV Ab- and HBs-Ag-negative. We constructed a propensity-score-matched cohort to minimize the risk of observable potential confounders. Results Propensity score matching produced 126 matched pairs for patients with viral versus non-viral infection. After matching, the significant differences in baseline demographic features did not exist between the two groups. The objective response rate was 20.6% and 24.6% in viral- and non-viral-related HCC patients, respectively, without a significant difference (p = 0.55). The disease control rate was not also significantly different (68.3% vs 69.0%, p = 1.00). The median progression-free survival was 7.0 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.0-9.6) and 6.2 months (95% CI 5.1-7.8) in patients with viral and non-viral infection, and the 12-month survival rates were 65.5% (95% CI 50.8-76.8) and 71.7% (95% CI 57.3-81.9) in those with viral and non-viral infection, respectively, which were not significantly different (p = 0.33, p = 0.38). No significant difference in treatment-related adverse events was found between the two groups. Conclusions Our etiology-based study demonstrated that Atez/Bev showed good efficacy and safety for HCC patient with non-viral infection as well as those with viral infection.

Automated summary

This study compared the efficacy and safety of atezolizumab and bevacizumab in patients with viral and non-viral infection in clinical settings. The results showed that there were no significant differences in the response rate, disease control rate, progression-free survival, and 12-month survival rates between viral and non-viral-related HCC patients. No significant difference in treatment-related adverse events was found between the two groups. Atez/Bev demonstrated good efficacy and safety for HCC patients with both viral and non-viral infections.