Data on Liver Cancer Described by Researchers at National Taiwan University Hospital (Expanding Sorafenib Treatment for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Beyond Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer Stage C Patients: a National Study): Oncology – Liver Cancer

Taiwan Daily Report

2022 SEP 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Taiwan Daily Report -- New research on Oncology - Liver Cancer is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of Taipei, Taiwan, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “The reimbursement criteria of sorafenib for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were expanded in 2016 by Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) to include patients without macrovascular invasion or extrahepatic spread. This study explored sorafenib treatment outcomes before and after this expansion.”

Funders for this research include Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning, Republic of Korea, National Taiwan University, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from National Taiwan University Hospital, “The NHI database was searched for patients who initiated sorafenib treatment between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2017. Clinical variables were retrieved from the Taiwan Cancer Registry database. Overall survival (OS) and time to treatment discontinuation (TTD) were calculated as the times from the first sorafenib prescription date until death and the final prescription date, respectively. A total of 13,862 patients were included. The median age was 64 years, 78.1% of patients were male. Approximately a quarter of patients (25.1%) received sorafenib after the criteria expansion and exhibited significantly longer OS (median 7.9 vs. 6.6 months, p<0.001) and TTD (median 3.0 vs. 2.6 months, p=0.003) compared with patients who started before. These results were verified in patients with available data regarding clinical prognostic factors (n=9,378, 67.7% of the entire study population). In the multivariate analysis, sorafenib prescription after criteria expansion remained an independent predictor of longer OS [hazard ratio (HR)=0.87, p<0.001] and TTD (HR=0.93, p=0.004). In the subgroup analysis, these trends were consistently observed across different patient subgroups.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Patients with HCC who received sorafenib treatment after the reimbursement criteria expansion exhibited longer OS and TTD.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Expanding Sorafenib Treatment for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Beyond Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer Stage C Patients: a National Study. Anticancer Research, 2022;42(9):4461-4470. Anticancer Research can be contacted at: Int Inst Anticancer Research, Editorial Office 1ST Km Kapandritiou-Kalamou Rd Kapandriti, PO Box 22, Athens 19014, Greece. (International Institute of Anticancer Research - http://www.iiar-anticancer.org/; Anticancer Research - http://www.iiar-anticancer.org/main.php?id=2)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Yu-yun Shao, National Taiwan University Hospital, Internal Med, Taipei, Taiwan. Additional authors for this research include Ching-tso Chen, Chih-hung Hsu and Ann-lii Cheng.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.21873/anticanres.15946. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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