Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0019204 (hepatocellular carcinoma)
 71,386 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Although various types of treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have been tried, the prognosis remains dismal, especially in patients with advanced stage of the disease. Somatostatin analogues exert antitumor effects. HCC have been shown to exhibit somatostatin receptors. The present randomized placebo-controlled study aimed at examining the efficacy of long-acting octreotide (Sandostatin LAR) for the treatment of advanced HCC. Seventy patients were randomized to receive a 2-week course of 250 microg short-acting octreotide twice daily followed by Sandostatin LAR 30 mg injection once every 4 weeks for 6 doses (n = 35) or placebo (control group) (n = 35). The clinical and laboratory parameters were monitored. There was no difference in the cumulative survival between the Sandostatin LAR-treated group compared with the control group [median survival 1.93 months vs. 1.97 months, respectively, P = NS (log-rank test)]. There was no tumor regression and no reduction of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels in patients receiving Sandostatin LAR treatment. There was no improvement of quality of life assessed by Karnofsky performance score. In conclusion, Sandostatin LAR monotherapy did not have survival benefit in our selected group of patients with advanced HCC. Further studies should be performed in patients with less advanced disease and/or different etiology to evaluate its benefit.
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PMID:A randomized placebo-controlled study of long-acting octreotide for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. 1257 12

Treatment options for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain limited. Recently, octreotide has been proposed for therapy, although its efficacy remains controversial. Thus, the aim of this open-label pilot study was to evaluate the response of HCC to long-acting octreotide (Sandostatin LAR). Thirty patients were enrolled for this prospective 2-year trial. Initially, patients were given short acting octreotide to ensure drug tolerability. Thereafter, patients received long-acting octreotide 30 mg IM every 4 to 6 weeks. Measurable disease was assessed at 3-month intervals. Five of 30 patients were unable to tolerate the test dose, and 1 patient was reevaluated and underwent hepatic resection. The remaining 24 patients, who received long-acting octreotide, all had advanced stage of disease with multifocal-massive morphology (67%), vascular thrombosis (63%), or extrahepatic spread (17%), but well compensated liver disease. The treatment was well tolerated, except for diarrhea. Median time to tumor progression was 3.6 months, and median survival was 5.1 months. Seven patients (29%) had stable disease (median duration of 8.0 months) with 2 patients demonstrating disease stability for 24 months. In conclusion, although occasional patients appear to have stable disease on long-acting octreotide therapy, overall the beneficial response in terms of time to tumor progression and survival is limited.
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PMID:Octreotide therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. 1634 Jun 41