Outcomes following complete response of hepatocellular carcinoma to immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is the preferred frontline treatment for most hepatocellular carcinomas, but only a small percentage of patients attain complete response. The clinical importance of these complete responses is unclear. Post hoc analysis of the IMbrave150 trial (279 patients) and a multicenter cohort analysis (194 patients) found complete response in 13.2% of patients in IMbrave150 and 8.7% of patients in the multicenter cohort. Complete response was associated with superior progression-free and overall survival when compared to other responses. Among complete responders who discontinued treatment for reasons other than disease progression after a median duration of treatment of 24 months, disease recurrence was rare. Complete responders also had greater PD-L1 expression and lower circulating tumor DNA levels. The authors conclude that these findings suggest that immunotherapy complete responders are a distinct patient population.