Metastatic Hepatocellular Carcinoma Responsive to Pembrolizumab

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive liver tumor that occurs with chronic liver disease. Surgical resection is the mainstay of therapy for localized disease whereas therapeutic options for advanced disease are limited. The innovative blockade of immune checkpoints with targeted immunotherapies, such as monoclonal antibodies against programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1), have shown promise in the treatment of solid malignancies. The PD-1 inhibiting antibodies, nivolumab and pembrolizumab prolonged overall survival in randomized trials in metastatic melanoma and advanced non-small cell lung cancer. This is a report of a 75-year-old male patient with metastatic HCC who was initially treated with the standard of therapy sorafenib. After failure of sorafenib therapy, pembrolizumab was started. There was a dramatic response to pembrolizumab with decrease in tumor size and drop in alfa fetoprotein. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of metastatic HCC responsive to pembrolizumab after failure of sorafenib.