The treatment strategies for HCC with PVTT is still controversial, and differ substantially between the west and the east. According to western guidelines, including those of the EASL, BCLC, and AASLD, PVTT is regarded as a contra-indication to initial surgery or transarterial chemoembolization. At present, there is still no consensus on the diagnosis and treatment standards of HCC with HVTT/IVCTT. European and American guidelines for liver cancer use The Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging as the standard and classify liver cancer with HVTT/IVCTT into the advanced stage. Molecular targeted drugs such as sorafenib and lenvatinib are recommended to the patients in this phase as first-line treatment drugs and methods. In this regard, experts in China and Southeast Asian countries still have different opinions. They believe that surgery, transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), radiotherapy, and combined treatment with multiple treatment methods can achieve more satisfactory results. HCC with VTT consists of heterogeneous populations with different disease behaviors and prognoses. As a result of recent concept evolution and advances in surgical techniques and perioperative management, emerging evidence shows that selected patients with PVTT may benefit from more aggressive treatment modalities, which are recommended for by Chinese, Japanese, South Korean, and Asia Pacific clinical practice guidelines. A national survey from Japan showed median overall survival with liver resection treatment to be 1.77 years longer than with nonresection therapies, which included TACE, radiotherapy, sorafenib, or conservative treatment (2.87 years vs 1.10 years, respectively; p\<0.001). After propensity-score matching of patient baseline characteristics, median overall survival since diagnosis in the liver resection group was 0.88 years longer than in the non-resection group. In a large-scale, multicentre, propensity-score matched analysis from China, surgery was the best treatment for patients with Cheng's type I and II PVTT with Child-Pugh A and selected B liver function. Median overall survival after liver resection (745 of 1580 patients) was 15.9 months (95% CI 13.3-18.5 months) for Cheng's type I PVTT and 12.5 months (10.7-14.3 months) for Cheng's type II PVTT. Thus, aggressive surgical resection in selected patients with HCC with vascular invasion, as proposed by several tertiary health-care centers in the east, seems to be reasonable. Currently, there are no dedicated clinical trials to study the value of hepatic resection in this population. Furthermore, cumulative evidence indicates that long-term overall survival after hepatic resection alone remains unsatisfactory because of the high rate of tumor recurrence and correspondingly low rate of disease-free survival. The combination of perioperative therapies may be more efficacious to improve the prognosis in selected population. More high-level evidence of novel multimodality treatment should be generated. This trial will enroll HCC patients with PVTT CNLC Stage IIIa, who have no prior anti-cancer treatment. Given the poor prognosis and limited treatment options for these patients, this population is considered appropriate for trials of more aggressive and novel therapeutic candidates in the initial treatment setting. The benefit risk profile for hepatic resection combined with perioperative atezo/bev in this patient population is expected to be favorable.
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TTF
Timeframe: 24 months