New treatment increases life time expectancy of patients suffering from advanced liver cancer

[Guest guest]

Public release date: 4-Jun-2007

New treatment increases life time expectancy of patients suffering from

advanced liver cancer

Study

will be presented today during the ASCO plenary session in Chicago

A trial

designed and co-led by Dr. Jordi Bruix,

head of the Hepatology Service of Hospital Clínic-

IDIBAPS (Barcelona)

and Dr. p Llovet, ICREA researcher of the Hepatic Oncology Group, are planning a new treatment which

increases the overall survival of patients suffering from advanced liver cancer. The results of this study, called SHARP (Sorafenib HCC –hepatocellular

carcinoma– Assessment Randomized Protocol) allow overall

survival (OS) and time to symptom progression (TTSP) comparison between

patients who were administered Sorafenib orally,

(developed by BAYER) and another group of patients, treated with placebo. The results presented by Clínic-IDIBAPS

investigators have been hand selected to be included on the Best of ASCO program. This

is an educational initiative that condenses highlights from ASCO’s

Annual Meeting into a 1½ day program.

Results

are consistent and significant. Overall survival of

patients treated with Sorafenib was in average 10.7

months compared to 7.9 months within the group administered placebo. Thus, this treatment increases overall survival by more

than 40% if compared to the placebo group. Furthermore,

no differences were observed in the severe side effects rate between the

treatment’s two modalities. Obtained data imply

an unprecedented therapeutic progress in the treatment of advanced liver cancer

and involve a shift in this disease’s paradigm. This

treatment gives new hope for patients who, until now, could neither beneficiate

from curative effects of therapies nor hope for survival improvement. From a scientific point of view, this drug, which delays

tumor progression and improves survival, will be the base for future further

research.

The SHARP

study, an international phase III trial, lead by Hospital Clínic

in collaboration with Mount Sinai, where Dr. Llovet

is head of the Hepatic Cancer Research Program, started 5 years ago and

included a total of 602 patients from 110 centers from the USA, South America,

Europe, Australia and New Zealand. All participating

patients suffered from advanced liver cancer and had not received any kind of

therapy prior to the study.  As a

consequence of the good results showed by patients treated with Sorafenib, researchers decided to end the study ahead of

schedule in order to administer the drug also to the rest of patients

participating in this trial.

Liver cancer and Sorafenib

Primary

liver cancer, also known as hepatocellular carcinoma,

is the most common of liver cancers. This is the fifth

most common cancer worldwide and, in Spain,

this disease has an incidence of 10-11 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants per

year. The most affected patients are those suffering

from acute cirrhosis caused by hepatitis B/ C infections or by excessive

alcohol consumption.

Until

now, patients suffering from liver cancer in an initial phase have benefited

from procedures like resection, transplantation or ablation. Unfortunately,

more than 60% of cases of liver cancer are detected in an advanced phase,

making chemoembolisation the only available treatment. Chemoembolisation could only be

applied to 15% of patients, and there was no other effective treatment for the

rest of patients.

Sorafenib blocks a cellular cycle

signal pathway, preventing not only the proliferation of tumor cells but also

the formation of blood vessels supporting the tumor. Therefore,

it delays tumor progression and, as a consequence, improves survival. This implies a hopeful change for patients since until

now, treatments tried to eradicate the disease, whereas these new type of

agents try to stop the progression of the disease. If

new drugs or new combinations of drugs achieve total inhibition of cancer

progression, cancer as a whole, and liver cancer in particular, will not

necessarily give rise to death.

Hospital Clínic at ASCO

The ASCO

Annual Meeting, celebrated this year in Chicago

from June 01 – 05 is considered to be the world’s most important

event for the whole scientific community conducting research on issues related

to cancer, which has more than 30,000 researchers. Every

year thousands of articles from all over the world are presented at ASCO,

reflecting the last clinical and translational research progress within the

areas of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of

cancer.

The

important role of Hospital Clínic’s presence at

the ASCO Annual Meeting is centered in the presence of Dr. Jordi

Bruix and Dr. p María Llovet from the Hepatic

Oncology Group of Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS, who have

participated in today’s plenary session, 04th June at 1 p.m. The plenary session is the central event of this

conference, only holding the presentation of results of four chosen research

works.

Furthermore,

Dr. Joan Bladé and Dr. Rosiñol,

both from the Haematooncology Group of Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS participated in two oral presentations about

two new multiple myeloma studies.

These

events strengthen Hospital Clinic’s commitment in being an oncological reference hospital not only for the development

of translations researches, but also for patient health care.

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