Sorafenib Plus Tegafur/Uracil (UFUR®) for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC)

Summary

The prognosis for patients with metastatic or locally advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is poor. The role of conventional systemic chemotherapy has been very limited because most chemotherapeutic agents are in-effective and relative toxic to HCC patients who tend to have poor organ function reserves due to liver cirrhosis. The molecular-targeted therapy, which aims at deranged signaling pathways of cancer cells or their microenvironment, holds promise for HCC. Sorafenib (BAY 43-9006), a novel bi-aryl urea, is a potent inhibitor of VEGFR2 and Raf kinase. The clinical activity of sorafenib in HCC has been tested in a phase II study (Bayer study 10874), which enrolled a total of 137 advanced HCC patients. There were 4% of documented partial response, 5% of minor response, and 55% of stable disease. The 6- month progression -free for the cohort was 40%. Currently, there are two on-going large-scale randomized trials of sorafenib in advanced HCC patients worldwide.

Timeline

Start

2007-04

Primary completion

—

Completion

2009-03

Publications

• Hsu CY, Shen YC, Yu CW, Hsu C, Hu FC, Hsu CH, Chen BB, Wei SY, Cheng AL, Shih TT. Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging biomarkers predict survival and response in hepatocellular carcinoma patients treated with sorafenib and metronomic tegafur/uracil. J Hepatol. 2011 Oct;55(4):858-65. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2011.01.032. Epub 2011 Feb 19.

Drugs

Indications