Autoren:	Müller, Lukas Gairing, Simon Johannes Klöckner, Roman Foerster, Friedrich Schleicher, Eva Maria Weinmann, Arndt Mittler, Jens Stoehr, Fabian Halfmann, Moritz Christian Düber, Christoph Galle, Peter Robert Hahn, Felix
Titel:	The prognostic role of early tumor shrinkage in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing immunotherapy
Online-Publikationsdatum:	10-Feb-2023
Erscheinungsdatum:	2022
Sprache des Dokuments:	Englisch
Zusammenfassung/Abstract:	Background Early tumor shrinkage (ETS) has been identified as a promising imaging biomarker for patients undergoing immunotherapy for several cancer entities. This study aimed to validate the potential of ETS as an imaging biomarker for patients undergoing immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods We screened all patients with HCC that received immunotherapy as the first or subsequent line of treatment at our tertiary care center between 2016 and 2021. ETS was defined as the reduction in the sum of the sizes of target lesions, between the initial imaging and the first follow-up. The ETS was compared to the radiologic response, according to the modified response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (mRECIST). Furthermore, we evaluated the influence of ETS on overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and the alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) response. Results The final analysis included 39 patients with available cross-sectional imaging acquired at the initiation of immunotherapy (baseline) and after 8–14 weeks. The median ETS was 5.4%. ETS was significantly correlated with the response according to mRECIST and with the AFP response. Patients with an ETS ≥10% had significantly longer survival times after the first follow-up, compared to patients with < 10% ETS (15.1 months vs. 4.0 months, p = 0.008). Additionally, patients with both an ETS ≥10% and disease control, according to mRECIST, also had significantly prolonged PFS times after the initial follow-up (23.6 months vs. 2.4 months, p < 0.001). Conclusion ETS was strongly associated with survival outcomes in patients with HCC undergoing immunotherapy. Thus, ETS is a readily assessable imaging biomarker that showed potential for facilitating a timely identification of patients with HCC that might benefit from immunotherapy.
DDC-Sachgruppe:	610 Medizin 610 Medical sciences
Veröffentlichende Institution:	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Organisationseinheit:	FB 04 Medizin
Veröffentlichungsort:	Mainz
ROR:	https://ror.org/023b0x485
DOI:	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8684
Version:	Published version
Publikationstyp:	Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Weitere Angaben zur Dokumentart:	Scientific article
Nutzungsrechte:	CC BY
Informationen zu den Nutzungsrechten:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Zeitschrift:	Cancer imaging 22
Seitenzahl oder Artikelnummer:	54
Verlag:	Springer Nature
Verlagsort:	London
Erscheinungsdatum:	2022
ISSN:	1470-7330
DOI der Originalveröffentlichung:	10.1186/s40644-022-00487-x
Enthalten in den Sammlungen:	DFG-491381577-G