Positive results from the EMERALD-1 Phase III trial showed AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi (durvalumab) in combination with TACE and bevacizumab demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in the primary endpoint of progression-free survival compared to TACE alone in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma eligible for embolisation.
These results will be presented today at the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO GI) in San Francisco, California.
Approximately 20-30% of patients with HCC, the most common type of liver cancer, are eligible for embolisation, a procedure that blocks the blood supply to the tumour and can also deliver chemotherapy or radiation therapy directly to the liver. Despite being the standard of care in this setting, most patients who receive embolisation experience disease progression or recurrence within eight months.
Bruno Sangro, MD, PhD, Director of the Liver Unit and Professor of Medicine at Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain and a lead investigator in the EMERALD-1 trial, said: “In this earlier liver cancer setting, embolisation alone has been the standard of care for more than 20 years, and rates of disease progression have remained high. Adding durvalumab and bevacizumab to TACE reduced the risk of disease progression or death by twenty-three per cent for patients with liver cancer eligible for embolisation, showing for the first time that combining a systemic treatment with TACE meaningfully improves this clinically relevant outcome in earlier-stage disease.”
Susan Galbraith, Executive Vice President, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, said: “With Imfinzi-based treatment, patients with liver cancer eligible for embolisation lived nearly seven additional months before their disease progressed. We are discussing these positive EMERALD-1 data with global regulatory authorities while awaiting the final overall survival results from the trial.”
👉 Imfinzi plus transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) and bevacizumab reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 23% vs. TACE in liver cancer eligible for embolisation (astrazeneca.com)
