The purpose of this study is to evaluate the antitumor activity of sunitinib in patients with advanced/inoperable fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma. Rationale: Sunitinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth and by blocking blood flow to the tumor
Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma is variant rare of hepatocellular carcinoma witch distinct clinical, histological and prognostic features from conventional hepatocellular carcinoma. This entity typically occurs in young adults with no underlying hepatitis or cirrhosis. Surgical resections could be proposed in some referral centers and this in cases of localized tumors. However, in cases of postoperative recurrence, "salvage" resection is not often possible. Overall prognosis remains poor, because of its primary chemoresistance and early recurrence of metastasis. Sunitinib (SUTENT) is a potent tyrosine kinase inhibitor, with double antiangiogenic and antitumor activity, targeting multiple receptors as VEGF-R, PDGF-R, KIT and FLT3. Since 2006, Sunitinib has been approved to treat advanced kidney cancer also called advanced renal cell carcinoma (a typically chemoresistant disease for which there no active treatment was available). Several targets of sunitinib are overexpressed hepatocellular carcinoma lines as shown in the Literature review and pathological studies. Otherwise, the overexpression of PDGFR and VEGFR correlates with recurrence and invasion in HCC. Finally, sunitinib showed an interesting antitumor activity in patients with conventional advanced HCC. Thereby, it seems important to study how well the sunitinib, a potent antitumor and antiangiogenic agent, works in treating patients with advanced or inoperable fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma especially, this setting lacks effective therapies. Furthermore, it seems urgent to conduct translational research and assessment to identify predictive biomarkers of response. In this study, orally sunitinib at dosed of 50 mg daily will be administrated to patients for 4 weeks, followed by 2 weeks of wash out. This administration schedule is based on the phase I study of sunitinib.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
4
Sunitinib 50mg/day (per os) for 6 cycles duration of one cycle = 6 weeks (4 weeks of treatment over 6 weeks)
Hôpital Beaujon
Clichy, Hauts de Seine, France
Objective response
to evaluate the objective response according to RECIST Criteria 1.1
Time frame: 1 year
Objective response
to evaluate objective response to sunitinib according to secondary radiological criteria (evaluation on CT scan of: tumor density, % of tumor necrosis and tumor vascularisation)
Time frame: 1 year
Overall survival
Time frame: 6 months and 1 year
Progression-Free survival
Time frame: 6 months and 1 year
Biomarkers of response
to evaluate the correlation between biomarkers expression and objective response so sunitinib
Time frame: 1 year
Biomarkers of radiological response
to evaluate the correlation between biomarkers expression and secondary radiological criteria (significant decrease of tumor density on CT scan, formation of significant intratumor necrosis, significant decrease of tumoral vascularisation using of perfusion software
Time frame: 1 year
This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.