The prognosis for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma is not very good, with a 5-year survival rate of only 21.7% in United States liver cancer patients, and the occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with chronic liver damage, such as cirrhosis, hepatitis B or hepatitis C viral infection. Treatment for liver cancer depends on the location, size, and number of tumor lesions. For early-stage liver cancer, the standard treatment is resection, orthotopic liver transplantation, thermal ablation, or transarterial chemoembolization. For advanced liver cancer, treatment is mainly systemic therapy, and if systemic treatment is not possible, internal radiation therapy is used. Until recently, the targeted drug sorafenib was the only choice for systemic treatment of advanced liver cancer, until recently, there have been lenvatinib, PD-1 inhibitors combined with anti-angiogenic targeted drugs, and so on.
TTFields therapy is a non-invasive local treatment that uses a device to generate an electric current to destroy cancer cells, TTFields therapy has been approved for glioblastoma and mesothelioma, and clinical trials are currently underway for a variety of solid tumors, including liver cancer, the HEPANOVA study evaluated the concomitant use of TTFields therapy with sorafenib, and the results showed significant improvement, the following is a recently reported treatment case, A 62-year-old male patient with liver cancer was stable for 39 months with second-line tumor treating treating tumor fields in combination with sorafenib.
1. The miracle of tumor treating with targeted drugs
In June 2010, a 62-year-old male patient was urgently sought medical attention due to hemoperitoneum caused by a ruptured liver tumor. In November 2011, a CT scan showed a mass in the liver, and the serum tumor marker alpha-fetoprotein AFP was normal, and he started treatment with doxorubicin in March 2012.
Liver lesions are found on the patient's first examination
In May 2015, an MRI showed neoplastic lesions in the liver and several new metastatic lesions, and the patient underwent a needle biopsy confirming differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma, although AFP was still normal. In June 2015, the patient participated in a clinical trial and was treated with nivolumab, a single agent of the PD-1 inhibitor, and observed complete remission and disappearance of tumor lesions until the last cycle of clinical trial (September 2019) for up to 4 years.
Placement of Tumor Treating Fields Placement of Tumor Treating Devices Placement of Tumor Treating Fields
In September 2019, routine CT imaging confirmed that the disease had progressed again, with new tumor lesions in the liver and mesenteric lymph nodes, and the patient stopped PD-1 treatment. In October 2019, we enrolled in the Phase 2 HEPANOVA clinical study, using tumor treating treating with tumor treating treating with sorafenib, and the first evaluation in January 2020 found that the lesion was reduced and the residual lesion was very small. As of March 2023, patients have been treated with Tumor Treating Fields for more than 39 months, with an average daily treatment time of 21 hours. Adverse effects of TMF therapy include first-degree skin irritation, resulting in a 1-week suspension of treatment, adverse events in the skin resolved after application of topical clobetasol cream (corticosteroids), and continued use of clobetasol cream for the remainder of CTF therapy. It has been nearly 13 years since the patient was diagnosed with the disease, which is not easy.
One year after the patient received Tumor Fields therapy and sorafenib treatment
Second, to give everyone inspiration
If before editing this article, patients with liver cancer asked about the best way to treat liver cancer, we might say that there is no better way to treat liver cancer except for PD-1 combined with anti-angiogenic targeted drugs. But now there is research on tumor treating treating patients in combination with targeted drugs, and the above patient treatment process has given everyone real expectations and hopes. We hope that this information can help you, and you are welcome to contact Cancer, consult the corresponding clinical trials, and use these cutting-edge cancer treatment measures as soon as possible.
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Bibliography:
Marisa Torres Velasco, et al., Long-Term Survival in Hepatocellular Carcinoma following Second-Line Tumor Treating Fields Therapy and Sorafenib: A Case Report, Case Rep Oncol 2024; 17:843–851.