Liver and Bile Duct Cancer Research Results and Study Updates

Results from two clinical trials show that combining a procedure called TACE with an immunotherapy drug and angiogenesis inhibitor improves how long people with intermediate-stage liver cancer live without their disease returning or getting worse.

Researchers have developed a blood test that, in a preliminary study, accurately detected liver cancer, including in people with early-stage disease. The test uses a new type of technology called fragmentomics to analyze bits of DNA in the blood.

For some people with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer, a liver transplant is the only hope for a cure. A new study shows a high 10-year survival rate for people who got a liver transplant after their tumors were “downstaged” to become eligible for a transplant.

Adding durvalumab (Imfinzi) to standard chemotherapy modestly extended how long people with advanced biliary tract cancer lived, results from the TOPAZ-1 trial show. The immunotherapy drug may now be the standard first-line therapy for this hard-to-treat cancer.

Researchers have found that mice that lack β2-spectrin protein in their livers are protected from nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and the most common kind of liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma.

The new test is relatively simple and could improve screening for people who are at risk for developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer. It could help doctors find and treat HCC early.

FDA has approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) plus bevacizumab (Avastin) as an initial treatment for some people with advanced liver cancer. This is the first approval in 13 years for a treatment that is more effective than the current standard, sorafenib.

Some children with liver cancer may need less chemotherapy than is typically used, new research suggests. The study included children and infants with hepatoblastoma whose tumors had been surgically removed when the disease was diagnosed.

Researchers have found an unconventional way to unleash the immune system against liver cancer in mice. The researchers used an investigational drug to curb the production of a checkpoint inhibitor protein that shields tumors from the immune system.

In an early-phase trial, dabrafenib plus trametinib shrank tumors in patients with biliary tract cancer and adenocarcinoma of the small intestine whose tumors had a specific mutation in the BRAF gene.

An NCI study in mice that found a connection between gut bacteria and antitumor immune responses in the liver has implications for understanding mechanisms that lead to liver cancer and for potential treatments. The study was published in Science.

The FDA has granted accelerated approval to the immunotherapy drug nivolumab (Opdivo®) for patients with advanced liver cancer who have previously been treated with the targeted therapy sorafenib (Nexavar®).

Only two drugs are FDA-approved for liver cancer. This study of hepatocellular carcinoma found genetic alterations in tumors—including mutations in tumor-suppressing genes and high expression of immune checkpoint genes—that could be targets for drugs that already exist.

FDA approved the kinase inhibitor regorafenib for some patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer.