Open AccessTreatment of inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma with immunotherapy
Author(s) -
Sean Tighe,
Umair Iqbal,
Christopher T Fernandes,
Aijaz Ahmed
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
bmj case reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.231
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 1757-790X
DOI - 10.1136/bcr-2019-229744
Subject(s) - medicine , hepatocellular carcinoma , nivolumab , immunotherapy , cirrhosis , oncology , liver transplantation , liver cancer , gastroenterology , cancer , transplantation
In the USA, mortality associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) continues to rise. Globally, HCC is the third most common cause of cancer-related death. In early stages of HCC, hepatic resection or liver transplantation are the preferred treatment options with a high probability of recurrence-free postoperative course. However, ineffective screening of chronic liver diseases in high-risk populations, poor linkage to care and suboptimal HCC surveillance has led to increasing rates of late-stage HCC at clinical presentation or diagnosis amenable only to palliative and experimental treatment options. Our case is a 66-year-old man with chronic hepatitis C virus infection complicated by cirrhosis and inoperable HCC which was non-responsive to selective intrahepatic trans-arterial chemoembolisation by interventional radiology. Therefore, he was treated with nivolumab immunotherapy and demonstrated normalisation of previously elevated alpha-fetoprotein levels suggestive of at least a partial response to immunotherapy. No adverse events related to nivolumab immunotherapy were encountered.