Dr. Kaubisch on Treatment Options for HCC

Andreas Kaubisch, MD, associate attending physician, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discusses available treatment options for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

There are a few different classes of drugs available to treat patients with HCC, explains Kaubisch. In the class of oral tyrosine kinase inhibitors, sorafenib (Nexavar) is the original drug in this group with regorafenib (Stivarga) and cabozantinib (Cabometyx) joining the class of approved tyrosine kinase inhibitors later, according to Kaubisch.

The immunotherapy drugs nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) are also available to treat patients with HCC, says Kaubisch. Additionally, ramucirumab (Cyramza), an antibody to VEGF, as a single agent was approved by the FDA in May 2019 for patients with HCC who have an alpha fetoprotein level of ≥400 ng/ML and have been previously treated with sorafenib, concludes Kaubisch.