The benefit of immunotherapy in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: A systemic review of the survival benefit of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in phase III hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) trials was conducted. Methods: Meta-analyses were performed with the generic inverse-variance method with a fixed-effects model. Results: In 10 trials encompassing 6123 patients, ICI-based therapy (monotherapy/combination) improved overall survival (OS) compared with the control arm (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.70–0.84; p < 0.001). The survival benefit was consistent across variable treatment lines, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status and AFP levels. While the OS benefit was more pronounced in hepatitis B-related HCC (HR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.63–0.77; p < 0.001), OS was improved in hepatitis C-related (HR: 0.83; 95% CI: 0.71–0.98) and nonviral HCC (HR: 0.86; 95% CI: 0.77–0.97). Conclusion: ICI-based therapies should be the standard for all patients with advanced HCC.