Sorafenib for 9,923 Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma: An Analysis from National Health Insurance Claim Data in South Korea = Sorafenib for 9,923 Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma: An Analysis from National Health Insurance Claim Data in South Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics, treatment patterns including subsequent treatment and outcomes of sorafenib of whole HCC patients in South Korea.
Methods: This is a retrospective, single-arm, and observational study. Data sources came from the national health insurance data. Included patients were those who had been diagnosed as HCC and received sorafenib between 1 July 2008 and 31 December 2014. A total of 9,923 patients were recruited in this study.
Results: The mean age of 9,923 patients were 59 years with male predominance (84.6%). The mean HCC-prevalent duration was 663 days (22.1 months). The most common etiology of HCC was hepatitis B (66%). Before sorafenib treatment, 6,669 (67.2%) patients received other kinds of therapies for HCC including transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), resection and radiation therapy. During sorafenib therapy, 1,565 (15.8%) received combined treatment with other modalities. After sorafenib therapy, 2,591 (26.1%) patients received rescue therapies, of which TACE was the most common modality applied in 1,498 (15.1%) patients. The mean duration of sorafenib administration in all the patients was 105.7 days. In 7,159 (72.2%) patients, the initial and mean sorafenib dose were the same. There were 7,023 (70.8%) patients whose initial sorafenib dose was 600-800mg. The survival was longest in patients with recommended starting dose of 800mg, followed by dose reduction to 400mg (15.0 months). The second longest survival was demonstrated in patients with starting dose of 800mg, followed by dose reduction to 400-600mg (9.6 months). A total of 3,591 patients underwent rescue therapy after sorafenib, and the median OS was 14.5 months which were longer than 4.6 months in 7,332 patients who received supportive care after sorafenib. The most commonly applied treatment after sorafenib was TACE (30.8%).
Conclusions: Real-life data show that the efficacy of sorafenib seems to be similar with that in clinical trials. Appropriate subsequent therapy after sorafenib might prolong the patient survival.