Various locoregional treatments for localized hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have been developed. This retrospective study investigated the safety and feasibility of combining on-demand selective locoregional treatment for residual lesions after tumor shrinkage (complete response [CR] oriented) or for solitary or few drug-resistant lesions (progressive disease (PD) salvage) with first-line atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (atezo/bev) for unresectable HCC. Twenty-nine patients with unresectable HCC were included. Fourteen locoregional treatments were performed (CR oriented, 7; PD salvage, 7) in ten patients in the combination-therapy group. All patients in the combination-therapy group successfully achieved a CR or PD salvage status after the planned locoregional treatment. The objective response rate of the combination-therapy group (80.0%) was higher than that of the atezo/bev alone group (21.1%; p = 0.005). Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were longer in the combination group (medians for PFS and OS not reached) than in the atezo/bev alone group (median PFS, 7.4 months; median OS, 19.8 months) (PFS, p = 0.004; OS, p < 0.001). The albumin-bilirubin score did not change, and no severe complications occurred after locoregional treatment. When performed in a minimally invasive manner, on-demand selective locoregional treatment combined with first-line atezo/bev could be safe and feasible for unresectable HCC.
Keywords: atezolizumab plus bevacizumab; combination therapy; hepatocellular carcinoma; locoregional treatment; radiofrequency ablation; stereotactic body radiotherapy; surgical resection; transarterial chemoembolization.