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Transarterial Chemoembolization Plus Immune Checkpoint Blockade for Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma
At Great Debates and Updates in Gastrointestinal Malignancies in New York, New York, James Harding, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, discussed results from the EMERALD-1 study which demonstrated that transarterial chemoembolization plus immune checkpoint blockade improved progression-free survival among patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
Transcript:
Thank you so much for having me, I'm James Harding. I'm a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. I'm happy to be here at GI Great Debates 2024.
We just got back from a session on the use of immunotherapy in combination with local regional therapy for liver-limited disease. The hot topic really was the discussion of EMERALD-1 which was a global, multi-center, phase 3 study of TACE, a regional therapy for liver-limited disease, versus TACE plus durvalumab versus TACE plus durvalumab and bevacizumab. The primary end point of the study was progression-free survival, other key endpoints included overall survival, quality of life, and response.
Importantly, this was the first clinical trial to show a progression-free survival advantage for combination immunotherapy on top of TACE versus TACE alone. The median progression-free survival for the triplet was about 15 months. The median progression-free survival for TACE alone was 8 months.
These data are certainly very provocative and continue to show the necessary effect of combination immunotherapy in HCC. A key aspect of this though is waiting for longer follow-up time to assess the totality of the data, impact on survival, and quality of life. It was a great debate and again, we thank GI Great Debates 2024 for the invitation.
Source:
Harding J. Debate: Transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma with immune checkpoint blockade: Skip it or do it? Presented at Great Debates and Updates in Gastrointestinal Malignancies. May 17-18, 2024. New York, NY.
