The Gastrointestinal Cancer Channel is supported with funding from Gilead Sciences (Silver) and Revolution Medicines (Silver).
VJOncology is an independent medical education platform. Supporters, including channel supporters, have no influence over the production of content. The levels of sponsorship listed are reflective of the amount of funding given to support the channel.
ASCO GI 2026 | Trans-arterial tirapazamine embolization and pembrolizumab in HCC
Nadine Abi-Jaoudeh, MD, University of California, Irvine, CA, discusses a Phase II study (NCT03259867) evaluating trans-arterial tirapazamine embolization combined with nivolumab in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) refractory to prior immunotherapy. The combination demonstrated promising efficacy with a notable objective response rate and durable survival. The regimen was well tolerated with manageable adverse events, and translational analysis indicated immune activation. This interview took place at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, CA.
These works are owned by Magdalen Medical Publishing (MMP) and are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All rights are reserved.
Transcript
So in that trial, these are patients that are in the intermediate stage. And this is first line. So they’re systemically naive. We’re combining epoetin alfa was not mentioned but another drug was, and cabozantinib with TACE in those patients in hopes of extending overall survival and also progression-free survival. We did note a 28% complete response in that trial, which is very encouraging...
So in that trial, these are patients that are in the intermediate stage. And this is first line. So they’re systemically naive. We’re combining epoetin alfa was not mentioned but another drug was, and cabozantinib with TACE in those patients in hopes of extending overall survival and also progression-free survival. We did note a 28% complete response in that trial, which is very encouraging. There were not a lot of adverse events, which was pretty well tolerated, and so the combination of all three seemed to be positive. I think the main thing with this is that what we’re looking for, and this is something we noted, and it’s not mentioned in the abstract with the TTP or PFS or other study, but we have data on the TCR clones. So we’re looking at peripherally in the blood and we note that patients who have a response have an expansion of their CD8 clones and both new clones and expansion of existing clones. And I think, so there is immunomodulation by the combination therapy. And I think that’s kind of really the synergy and what’s at heart is that we need to find the right combinations to really induce that immune activation.
This transcript is AI-generated. While we strive for accuracy, please verify this copy with the video.
Read more...
