Award Dr Claudia Fulgenzi Awarded the ILCA AC 2022 Junior Investigator Award for Best Clinical Science Oral Presentation

PhD student Dr Claudia Fulgenzi who works with Dr David James Pinato has been awarded the ILCA AC 2022 Junior Investigator Award for Best Clinical Science Oral Presentation for her abstract titled- “Observational registry of atezolizumab plus bevacizumab use in routine clinical practice: preliminary results of the AB-Real international study” submitted for the ILCA Annual Conference 2022.

 The study looked at post-registration assessment of prognostic factors of Atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (A+B), which has not received much attention in routine clinical practice.

With the support of other researchers worldwide, Dr Fulgenzi created a database of patients with A+B for unresectable HCC across Europe, Asia and USA. Univariate and multivariate analyses were then conducted to access clinico-pathological characteristics for their prognostic influence on Overall Survival (OS) and Progression-free Survival (PFS).

Of the initial total of 296 patients, 273 were response-evaluable with a disease control rate was 77.6% and primary progression occurred in the rest, 22.3%.

For the OS in the univariate analysis, the prognostic factors were baseline AFP, CP score, PVTT, ALBI grade and previous LRTs. And for the OS in the multivariate model, the prognostic factors were ALBI grade and the presence of PVTT. As for the PFS in both univariate and multivariate models, the associated factors were AFP and ALBI grade. Overall, 74.6% of patients developed treatment-related adverse events, 21.3% reported immune-related adverse events and 8.4% had hemorrhagic events. Besides, a higher incidence of bleeding events occurred in patients with PVTT.

This international observational study endorses reproducible safety, tolerability and efficacy of A+B in routine clinical practice. The presence of PVTT and worsening ALBI grade identify patients with poorer prognosis even within stringent CP-A criteria