Systemic Therapy for Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma in 2026: Current Standard-of-Care and Emerging Therapeutic Strategies - PubMed
6 hours ago
- #Systemic Treatment
- #Immunotherapy
- #Hepatocellular Carcinoma
- Immunotherapy combinations are the first-line standard of care for advanced HCC, replacing tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs).
- Despite high response rates, only 20-30% of patients respond to first-line immunotherapy, with about 50% progressing at 6 months.
- TKIs are effective and safe for patients who progress on immunotherapy, as supported by recent studies.
- Novel strategies include adding a third immune checkpoint inhibitor or combining locoregional therapies like TACE with systemic treatments.
- Phase 3 trials (EMERALD-1, LEAP-012, TALENTACE) show survival benefits from combining TACE and immunotherapy over TACE alone.
- Combination therapies enable downstaging and conversion to curative options due to higher response rates.
- Cellular therapy shows promise in early studies, potentially expanding immunotherapy options beyond checkpoint inhibitors.