Clinical trials

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common cancer and the third most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The majority of patients with HCC are diagnosed as intermediate or advanced stage disease, and not eligible for curative treatments including transplantation, resection, and ablation. Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is recommended as first-line treatment for patients with intermediate-stage HCC, while it is also widely used in the unresectable HCC. The clinical efficacy and safety in advanced HCC patients of camrelizumab plus apatinib were reported in phase 3 trial (CARES-310). Camrelizumab plus apatinib with a median progression-free survival of 5.7 months and a median overall survival of 22.1 months in advanced HCC. This study is randomized, open-label, multicenter controlled trial; which was focused in initial BCLC-B/C HCC patients. This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of TACE plus programmed death-1 inhibitor (camrelizumab), and anti-angiogenic therapy (apatinib) with camrelizumab plus apatinib.