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Plasma growth hormone is a potential biomarker of response to atezolizumab and bevacizumab in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma patients.

Authors :
Mohamed YI
Duda DG
Awiwi MO
Lee SS
Altameemi L
Xiao L
Morris JS
Wolff RA
Elsayes KM
Hatia RI
Qayyum A
Chamseddine SM
Rashid A
Yao JC
Mahvash A
Hassan MM
Amin HM
Kaseb AO
Source :
Oncotarget [Oncotarget] 2022 Dec 06; Vol. 13, pp. 1314-1321. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Dec 06.
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has limited systemic therapy options when discovered at an advanced stage. Thus, there is a need for accessible and minimally invasive biomarkers of response to guide the selection of patients for treatment. This study investigated the biomarker value of plasma growth hormone (GH) level as a potential biomarker to predict outcome in unresectable HCC patients treated with current standard therapy, atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (Atezo/Bev).<br />Materials and Methods: Study included unresectable HCC patients scheduled to receive Atezo/Bev. Patients were followed to determine progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Plasma GH levels were measured by ELISA and used to stratify the HCC patients into GH-high and GH-low groups (the cutoff normal GH levels in women and men are ≤3.7 μg/L and ≤0.9 μg/L, respectively). Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate median OS and PFS and Log rank test was used to compare survival outcomes between GH-high and -low groups.<br />Results: Thirty-seven patients were included in this analysis, of whom 31 were males and 6 females, with a median age of 67 years (range: 37-80). At the time of the analysis, the one-year survival rate was 70% (95% CI: 0.51, 0.96) among GH low patients and 33% (95% CI: 0.16, 0.67) among GH high patients. OS was significantly superior in GH-low compared to GH-high patients (median OS: 18.9 vs. 9.3 months; p = 0.014). PFS showed a non-significant trend in favor of GH-low patients compared to the GH-high group (median PFS: 6.6 vs. 2.9 months; p = 0.053).<br />Discussion and Conclusions: Plasma GH is a biomarker candidate for predicting treatment outcomes in advanced HCC patients treated with Atezo/Bev. This finding should be further validated in larger randomized clinical trials in advanced HCC patients.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1949-2553
Volume :
13
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Oncotarget
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
36473155
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.28322