Trial reportClinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research2022
Pembrolizumab Monotherapy for Previously Untreated Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Data from the Open-Label, Phase II KEYNOTE-224 Trial.
Trial report in Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02702414 (A Phase 2 Study of Pembrolizumab), which is not on this map. Cited by 71 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
A Phase 2 Study of Pembrolizumab (MK-3475) as Monotherapy in Subjects With Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma (KEYNOTE-224)
Who cites it
71 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- Quantitative evaluation of the efficacy and safety of first-line systemic therapies for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Phase I-IV Drug Trials on Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Asian Populations: A Systematic Review of Ten Years of Studies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Adverse events of immune checkpoint inhibitors in hepatocellular carcinoma: a systemic review and meta-analysis.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Hepatitis B reactivation in cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2023Pooled it
- Anti-PD-L1 envafolimab combined with anti-VEGF suvemcitug in pretreated solid tumors and hepatocellular carcinoma: an open-label phase II study with safety run-in stage.Investigational new drugs · 2025Trial
- The phosphatidylserine targeting antibody bavituximab plus pembrolizumab in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: a phase 2 trial.Nature communications · 2024Trial
- A Pilot Study of Pembrolizumab in Combination With Y90 Radioembolization in Subjects With Poor Prognosis Hepatocellular Carcinoma.The oncologist · 2024Trial
- Baseline and dynamic cytokines as biomarkers for immune checkpoint and anti-VEGF therapy in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.ESMO gastrointestinal oncology · 2026Article
- Identification of immune-related targets of N6-methyladenosine regulators in hepatocellular carcinoma via RNA-seq analysis.Translational cancer research · 2026Article
- Therapeutic Strategies for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Current Advances and Future Perspectives.Vaccines · 2026Review
- T Cell Exhaustion in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Substantial Barrier in Immunotherapy.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2026Review
- Current Perspectives on the Use of Adjuvant Pembrolizumab for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Journal of hepatocellular carcinoma · 2026Review
- Synergistic Strategies in Systemic Therapy for Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Global challenges (Hoboken, NJ) · 2026Review
- Overcoming immune resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma: insights into mechanisms, predictive factors, and interventional strategies.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Mechanisms of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Resistance in Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Strategies for Reversal.Cancers · 2025Review
- No More Detours: Hepatopulmonary Shunt Reduction in a Patient with Hepatocellular Carcinoma after Treatment with Bevacizumab.Liver cancer · 2025Article
- Differential implications of tumor endothelial cell and lymphocyte densities in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma patients treated with immunotherapy.NPJ precision oncology · 2025Article
- Immune checkpoint biology in hepatocellular carcinoma (Review).Oncology letters · 2025Review
- Overcoming resistance to anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy: mechanisms, combination strategies, and future directions.Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- Advances in Systemic Therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Future Prospects.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2025Review
11 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
26 authors at 20 institutions in 12 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeKEYNOTE-224 cohort 1 demonstrated that pembrolizumab was efficacious and tolerable in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) previously treated with sorafenib. We report results from KEYNOTE-224 (NCT02702414) cohort 2, which enrolled patients with advanced HCC and no prior systemic therapy. PATIENTS AND
methodsKEYNOTE-224 was an open-label, multicountry phase II trial. Eligible patients in cohort 2 had advanced HCC not amenable or refractory to locoregional therapy and not previously treated with systemic therapy. Patients received pembrolizumab 200 mg intravenously every 3 weeks for ≤2 years. Primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) by central imaging review per RECIST v1.1. Secondary endpoints included duration of response (DOR), disease control rate (DCR), time to progression (TTP), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and safety/tolerability.
resultsBetween September 4, 2018, and February 20, 2019, 51 patients were allocated in cohort 2. The median time from the first dose to data cutoff (January 19, 2021) was 27 months (range, 23-29). ORR was 16% [95% confidence interval (CI), 7-29] and was similar across key subgroups. Median DOR was 16 months (range, 3-24+), and DCR was 57%. The median PFS was 4 months (95% CI, 2-8), and median TTP was 4 months (95% CI, 3-9). Median OS was 17 months (95% CI, 8-23). Grade ≥3 treatment-related adverse events occurred in 16% of patients.
conclusionsIn patients with advanced HCC with no prior systemic therapy, pembrolizumab provided durable antitumor activity, promising OS, and had a safety profile consistent with previous observations. These findings support further evaluation of pembrolizumab-based regimens for HCC.
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Registered trials
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.