PD-1 targeted immunotherapy in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: efficacy and safety data from an international multicenter real-world cohort

Prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with immunotherapy - development and validation of the CRAFITY score.

Immunotherapy with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab represents the new standard of care in systemic front-line treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, biomarkers that predict treatment success and survival remain an unmet need.Patients with HCC put on PD-(L)1-based immunotherapy were included in a training set (n = 190; 6 European centers) and a validation set (n = 102; 8 European centers). We investigated the prognostic value of baseline variables on overall survival using a Cox model in the training set and developed the easily applicable CRAFITY (CRP and AFP in ImmunoTherapY) score. The score was validated in the independent, external cohort, and evaluated in a cohort of patie…

The GALAD Score as Potential Screening Test for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis: An International Multicenter Study

The prevalence of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is rising rapidly and is currently the most common chronic liver disease in Western populations. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major complication of NASH and the current performance of screening approaches based on ultrasound shows limitations. To facilitate earlier diagnosis, this international multicenter study, with eight German and one Japanese center participating, tests the potential benefit of applying the biomarkers AFP, AFP-L3, DCP and related scores for HCC screening in NASH patients. In the retrospective German cohort, 126 NASH patients with newly diagnosed HCC and 231 NASH control patients without HCC were enrolled. In …

Predicting the outcome of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with immunotherapy - the CRAFITY score

GALAD Score Detects Early Hepatocellular Carcinoma in an International Cohort of Patients With Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis

Background & Aims The prevalence of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is increasing. However, strategies for detection of early-stage HCC in patients with NASH have limitations. We assessed the ability of the GALAD score, which determines risk of HCC based on patient sex; age; and serum levels of α-fetoprotein (AFP), AFP isoform L3 (AFP-L3), and des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP), to detect HCC in patients with NASH. Methods We performed a case-control study of 125 patients with HCC (20% within Milan Criteria) and 231 patients without HCC (NASH controls) from 8 centers in Germany. We compared the performance of serum AFP, AFP-L3, or DCP vs GALAD …