Prospective Evaluation Of The Factors Predicting The Prognosis Of Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma (Hcc) Patients Treated With Sorafenib.

e15674 Background: Several factors including pro-angiogenic cytokines have been reported as predictive markers for the treatment effect of sorafenib in patients with HCC; however, many of them were determined based on the results of retrospective studies. Methods: In this prospective cohort study (UMIN000009771), we recruited advanced HCC patients who were treated with sorafenib, and periodically measured serum levels of eight pro-angiogenic cytokines, which were risk factors for the prognosis reported by us and others. The effect of the cytokine expressions before and at 2 (4) weeks after starting sorafenib and at PD, on progression free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and post progression survival (PPS) were evaluated. The effect of early appearance of adverse events within 30 days, which were reported as other risk factors, was also evaluated. Results: Eighty patients were enrolled. Median PFS and OS were 3.1 and 11.7 months, respectively. There was no statistically significant variable that could predict PFS, which included patients’ characteristics, cytokines before the therapy, and early onset of adverse events. However, PFS of the patients who showed the decrease of platelet-derived growth factor after 2 weeks (HR2.78, 95%CI 1.35-6.21, P=0.005) or vascular endothelial growth factor after 4 weeks (HR3.31, 95%CI 1.59-6.83, P=0.001) compared to the values before sorafenib treatment was short. OS was short in patients with poor performance status, large tumor size (>30mm), large tumor number (>5), high des-gamma-carboxyprothrombin (DCP, >100mAU/mL), high hepatocyte growth factor, and high angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) before therapy, in addition to no hand foot syndrome within 30 days. Multivariate analysis with these factors revealed that high Ang-2 (HR2.25, 95%CI 1.08-4.86, p=0.029) and high DCP (HR3.55, 95%CI 1.25-12.7, p=0.014) were the independent risk factors for OS. High Ang-2 at PD could also be a marker of short PPS. Conclusions: The prediction of PFS, OS and PPS is possible by measuring serum pro-angiogenic cytokines at appropriate timing. Ang-2 is a key cytokine for predicting the prognosis of HCC patients treated with sorafenib.