Efficacy of sorafenib in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma refractory to transcatheter arterial chemoembolization

Background The efficacy of sorafenib for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients refractory to transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) has not yet been clarified. We investigated the efficacy of sorafenib in HCC patients who were refractory to TACE (sorafenib group) and retrospectively compared the results with those of patients treated with hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy using cisplatin (cisplatin group). Methods We evaluated the anti-tumor effect, the time to progression, and the overall survival in 48 patients in the sorafenib group and 66 patients in the cisplatin group. Results The disease control rate to sorafenib was 60.4 %, the median time to progression was 3.9 months, and the median survival time was 16.4 months in patients who were refractory to TACE. When compared with the cisplatin group, significant differences in the patient characteristics were not observed between the two groups with the exception of patient age; however, the disease control rate (cisplatin group 28.8 %, P = 0.001), time to progression (cisplatin group: median 2.0 months, hazard ratio 0.44, P