Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29805623›Full record

ArticleOncology letters2018

Value of α-fetoprotein as an early biomarker for treatment response to sorafenib therapy in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Ana Isabel Plano Sánchez, Lucía Velasco Roces, Isabel Zapico García, Eva Lázaro López, Miguel Angel Calleja Hernandez, Maria Isabel Baena Parejo, Jaime Peña-Díaz

Open access · diamondAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Oncology letters, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
22citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
2.2field-weighted citation impact, top 11% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Alpha-Fetoprotein as a Potential Surrogate Biomarker for Atezolizumab + Bevacizumab Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2022
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Ana Isabel Plano SánchezHospital Pharmacy Department, Central University Hospital of Asturias, Oviedo, 33011 Asturias, Spain.
Lucía Velasco RocesHospital Pharmacy Department, Central University Hospital of Asturias, Oviedo, 33011 Asturias, Spain.
Isabel Zapico GarcíaHospital Pharmacy Department, Central University Hospital of Asturias, Oviedo, 33011 Asturias, Spain.
Eva Lázaro LópezHospital Pharmacy Department, Central University Hospital of Asturias, Oviedo, 33011 Asturias, Spain.
Miguel Angel Calleja HernandezFaculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain.
Maria Isabel Baena ParejoFaculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain.
Jaime Peña-DíazFaculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain.
Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias · ESUniversidad de Granada · ES

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Sorafenib is an oral multikinase inhibitor with antiangiogenic and antiproliferative properties, and is used as the first-line treatment for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Previous studies have identified an improvement in overall survival and progression-free survival in patients with a manageable toxicity profile. α-fetoprotein (AFP) has been revealed to be of great diagnostic and predictive value for tumour staging in multiple studies; however, its role as a predictive factor of response to treatment with sorafenib is not entirely clear. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of sorafenib and investigate the value of AFP as a predictive factor of early response to sorafenib in patients with HCC. Effectiveness was analysed based on median overall survival (mOS) time, while to analyse the possible predictive value of AFP, patients were classified into two groups: Non-responders (≤20% AFP reduction) and responders (>20% AFP reduction) at 6-8 weeks of treatment when compared with basal AFP level. For assessment of toxicity, any adverse effects were recorded. A total of 167 patients were included, who collectively exhibited a mOS time of 11 months with a median treatment duration of 5 months. The mOS time was significantly higher for patients with better hepatic function (12 months in cases of Child-Pugh score A vs. 8 months in cases of Child-Pugh score B; P=0.03) and with basal AFP values ≤200 ng/ml (14 months vs. 8 months in patients with AFP levels >200 ng/ml; P=0.01). A >20% reduction of AFP at 6-8 weeks was determined to be a positive predictive factor upon multivariate analysis (P=0.002), obtaining, for the responder patients, an mOS of 18 months compared with 10 months (P=0.004) for the non-responders. The main adverse reactions were hand-foot syndrome (35/167; 21%), diarrhoea (39/167; 23.4%), anorexia (29/167; 17.4%) and arterial hypertension (30/167; 18%). In conclusion, a >20% drop in AFP at 6-8 weeks may be useful as a predictive factor of response to sorafenib, as indicated by its association with longer survival times in patients with advanced HCC following treatment with sorafenib in the present study.

Indexed as

biomarkereffectivenesshepatocellular carcinomasorafenibα-fetoprotein

Identifiers

PMID29805623
PMCPMC5950578
OpenAlexW2795100881

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.