Lenvatinib versus sorafenib as first-line therapy of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Antonio Facciorusso, Nicola Tartaglia, Rosanna Villani, Gaetano Serviddio, Daryl Ramai, Babu P. Mohan, Saurabh Chandan, Mohamed A. Abd El Aziz, Jessica Evangelista, Christian Cotsoglou, Antonio Ambrosi
Abstract
There is limited evidence on the efficacy of lenvatinib in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Aim of this meta-analysis was to compare lenvatinib and sorafenib as first-line treatment. Computerized bibliographic search was performed on main databases through November 2020. The primary outcome was overall survival, whereas survival rate (at 1-, and 2-year), progression-free survival (PFS), tumor response, and severe adverse event rate were the secondary outcomes. Results were expressed in terms of odds ratio (OR) or hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Five studies enrolling 1481 patients were included. No difference in terms of overall survival was detected (HR 0.81, 0.58-1.11) and median survival was 13.4 months (9.38-17.48) in lenvatinib and 11.4 months (8.46-14.47) in sorafenib patients. Lenvatinib led to a significant improvement of PFS (HR 0.67, 0.48-0.94) and median PFS was 5.88 months (3.68-8) in lenvatinib and 4.17 months (3.08-5.25) in sorafenib patients. Lenvatinib determined a considerably higher rate of objective response (33.3%, 23.6%-43% versus 6.5%, 3.5%-9.5%; OR 7.70, 2.99-19.82), and of disease control rate (76.9%, 70.4%-83.5% versus 52.7%, 40.7%-64.6%; OR 2.41, 1.55-3.77). No difference between lenvatinib and sorafenib in terms of severe adverse event rate was observed (OR 1.31, 0.82-2.09). Lenvatinib prolongs progression-free survival as compared to sorafenib in HCC patients, although this result does not translate to a significant survival benefit.