Transarterial Tirapazamine Embolization Plus Nivolumab Shows Promise in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- TATE combined with nivolumab achieved a high objective response rate (55.6% by mRECIST) and durable disease control in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma patients who had progressed on prior immune checkpoint inhibitors.
- Responses were durable, with median duration of response not reached and evidence of abscopal effects in patients with extrahepatic metastatic disease, suggesting systemic immune activation.
- The regimen was well tolerated, with transient liver enzyme elevations as the primary adverse events, and translational analyses demonstrated robust polyclonal T-cell clonal expansion following TATE.
Nadine Abi-Jaoudeh, MD, University of California, Irvine, California, discusses results from a phase 2 study evaluating transarterial tirapazamine embolization (TATE) combined with nivolumab in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who experienced disease progression on prior immunotherapy.
The combination demonstrated a high objective response rate, durable response, and evidence of systemic immune activation, including abscopal effects, in this heavily pretreated population.
These results were reported at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, California.
Source:
Abi-Jaoudeh N, Valerin JB, Fernando D, et al. A phase 2, open-label single-arm, multi-center study of trans-arterial tirapazamine embolization (TATE) combined with nivolumab (nivo) in patients with advanced immunotherapy-refractory hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Presented at ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. January 8 - 12, 2026; San Francisco, California. Abstract 538
