Clinical Impact of Vitamin K Dosing on Sorafenib Treatment for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Some researchers have suggested that vitamin K enhances the antitumor effect of sorafenib for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we examined the clinical impact of vitamin K dosing for sorafenib treatment. Twenty-nine out of 65 patients treated with sorafenib for HCC were simultaneously dosed with vitamin K. We retrospectively investigated progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in the vitamin K-dosed group and sorafenib alone group. We also examined the changes in serum des-γ-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) levels, which vitamin K is involved with. The median PFS was prolonged in the sorafenib + vitamin K group compared with the sorafenib alone group (6.0 months and 2.0 months, respectively; P