Dr. Abou-Alfa Discusses Results of the CELESTIAL Trial in Advanced HCC

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the results of the CELESTIAL trial in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) during the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

The CELESTIAL trial compared cabozantinib (Cabometyx) versus placebo in patients with advanced HCC who have received prior sorafenib (Nexavar). Results from this randomized phase III trial showed a median overall survival (OS) of 10.2 months for the cabozantinib arm versus 8 months for the placebo arm (HR 0.76, 95% CI, 0.63-0.92; P = .0049)—which is clinically and statistically significant, says Abou-Alfa. Additionally, the median progression-free survival was 5.3 months for cabozantinib compared with 1.9 months with placebo (HR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.36-0.52; P <.001).

These results indicate that cabozantinib showed an improvement in OS when administered after treatment with sorafenib. Abou-Alfa says that these findings provide a durable and well-tolerated second-line option for patients with advanced HCC.