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e16146 Background: Unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC) is an aggressive tumor with poor prognosis. Anlotinib is a novel small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that selectively targets VEGFR, FGFR, PDGFR, and c-kit receptors. Clinical trials have confirmed the efficacy and safety of anlotinib monotherapy or anlotinib-based combination therapy for uHCC. However, many patients in clinical practice fail to meet the criteria for these trials. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of anlotinib, as monotherapy or in combination therapy, for uHCC in clinical practice in China. Methods: This multicenter, real-world study enrolled patients with uHCC who had received anlotinib-based therapy, and completed at least one post-treatment efficacy assessment between July 2020 to February 2023. Patients who did not undergo imaging after one cycle of treatment, were lost to follow-up before completing one cycle of treatment, or required systemic chemotherapy or radiotherapy for the primary lesion were excluded from the study. The efficacy assessments were performed based on the RECIST version 1.1. OS, PFS, TTP, DCR and ORR for patients with anlotinib monotherapy (n = 12) and anlotinib-based combination therapy (n = 60) were evaluated. The main statistical analysis was conducted using the Kaplan–Meier method and log-rank test. Subgroup comparisons were performed based on different combinations of anlotinib therapy and the number of treatment lines in patients with uHCC. Occurrence of adverse events (AEs) to evaluate the safety profiles of anlotinib monotherapy or anlotinib-based combination therapy was collected. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire HCC-18 (EORTC QLQ-HCC18) was used to evaluate health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Results: For the anlotinib monotherapy group, the OS, PFS, TTP, DCR and ORR were 14.2 months, 6.9 months, 7.9 months, 16.7%, and 50.0%, respectively. For the anlotinib-based combination therapy group, these values were 15.8 months, 8.6 months, 10.2 months, 25.0%, and 65.0%, respectively. There was no significant difference in OS, PFS, and TTP between the two groups. PFS were significantly decreased in the non-first-line treatment group compared to the first-line treatment group. The incidence of drug-related AEs of any grade was 93.1%, with the most common grade ≥3 treatment-related AEs being lymphopenia and elevated transaminases. The time to deterioration was 14.0 months (95%CI: 8.3–19.8) and 12.2 months (95%CI: 9.8–14.7) in the monotherapy and combination therapy groups. Conclusions: Anlotinib demonstrated satisfactory efficacy and safety as a single agent and in combination with other therapies in the treatment of uHCC, with potential benefit on health-related quality of life.
Lei et al. (Sat,) studied this question.