A novel clinical FIT model predicts prognosis of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma treated with TACE combined with lenvatinib and PD-1 inhibitors therapy.

Authors

Minjun Liao, Zilong Wang, Xiaoxiao Wang, Xin Ai, Linnan Song, Yuyun Song, Wanying Qin, Kai Wang, Yuchen Zhou, Feng Liu, Huiying Rao

Published in

Frontiers in immunology. Volume 17. Pages 1906593. Epub Sep 22, 2026.

Abstract

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) with lenvatinib and programmed death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors therapy (triple therapy) demonstrated encouraging efficacy for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC). This study developed and validated a novel prognostic model to evaluate prognosis of uHCC patients with triple therapy, and identify patients who may benefit from triple therapy.
uHCC patients receiving triple therapy were retrospectively enrolled from multiple centers. Overall survival (OS) was the primary endpoint. The prognostic model was developed based on multivariate Cox regression derived predictors of OS. Prognosis was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier survival curves.
265 uHCC patients were enrolled (training cohort: n = 160; validation cohort: n = 105). The objective response and disease control rate were 52.5 and 77.7%, respectively. The optimal cut-off point for fibrin degradation products (FDP) and serum iron level were determined as 4.7 μg/dL and 60.0 μg/dL, respectively. Multivariate Cox regression identified FDP, serum iron level and tumor burden score (TBS) as independent predictors of OS, and these clinical parameters established the FIT model. The FIT model demonstrated favorable discriminative capability for predicting OS with AUC of 0.809 (95% CI: 0.740-0.879) and 0.798 (95% CI: 0.710-0.886) in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. Kaplan-Meier analyses revealed significant prognostic stratification for OS and progression-free survival (PFS) among risk groups defined by FIT model (p < 0.001). Subgroup analyses in alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), tumor number and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage subsets confirmed the prognostic relevance of FIT model in uHCC.
The novel clinical FIT model could effectively predict survival of uHCC patients receiving triple therapy, and facilitate prognostic stratification.

PMID:
42840156
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.