Oncology News Central (ONC)Renewed Interest in Radiation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma?

The authors reasoned that stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) followed by sorafenib would increase overall survival (OS) in advanced HCC compared to sorafenib alone, despite it being the standard of care. Despite immunotherapy replacing chemotherapy as the systemic norm after the trial’s enrollment period ended, the results were in. In the trial, 177 patients were randomly assigned to receive either sorafenib alone or SBRT followed by sorafenib. Prior to sorafenib administration, SBRT treatment markedly increased OS as well as the effectiveness of secondary goals like progression-free survival and time to progression.