Abstract 2181
Background
Sorafenib, an oral multikinase inhibitor, represents the standard care for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) is a crucial angiogenic factor. By binding to its receptor Tie2, Ang-2 cooperates with the VEGF pathway to maintain normal physiological functions. In the presence of VEGF, Ang-2 destabilizes blood vessels and promotes vascular sprouting. In cancers, Ang-2 is linked to not only angiogenesis but also invasive and metastatic phenotypes. Although sorafenib exerts no significant activity against Tie2, the predictive value of Ang-2 has been explored in 2 studies. The actual role of Ang-2 in predicting sorafenib efficacy warrants further investigations. Polymorphism analysis seems to have more advantages than protein or gene expression analysis. In our study we analysed the role of ANG-2 polymorphisms in relation to clinical outcome in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with sorafenib.
Methods
We analyzed 135 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with sorafenib. Peripheral blood samples or FFPE tumor tissues were available for DNA extraction and genotyping analysis. Nine Ang-2 polymorphisms were analyzed by direct sequencing or Real Time PCR method.
Results
With regard to Ang4 rs55633437 was observed that patients carrying the allele GG were associated with a better PFS and OS. The variants GG were associated with a median OS of 16.9 months vs 6.5 months of variants GT and TT (p = 0.016). The variants GT and TT were associated with a median PFS of 2.94 months vs 4.67 months of variants GG (p = 0.03). These data were confirmed by multivariate analysis.
Conclusions
Ang4 rs55633437 could represent prognostic markers in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma treated with sorafenib.
Clinical trial identification
NA
Legal entity responsible for the study
IRST-IRCCS
Funding
None
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.