Clinical Benefits of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and Predictive Value of Tumor Mutation Burden in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Review question / Objective: Is immunotherapy associated with beneficial clinical outcomes for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and how can combination immunotherapy be deployed to produce the best benefit? Is tumor mutation burden (TMB) a predictive biomarker for immune‐checkpoint inhibitors? Condition being studied: To this date, about 50 single-arm clinical trials and several randomized control trials (RCTs) presented final or interim results of investigations on the efficacy of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors for advanced HCC. In the CheckMate 459, IMbrave 050, and ORIENT-32, immunotherapies were found to significantly improve progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) compared with sorafenib (a tyrosine-kinase inhibitor, as standard systemic treatment) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. However, these clinical trials were different on clinical phases, sample size, and response evaluation criteria, and inconsistent clinical outcomes were shown in several trials.