AFP measurement in monitoring treatment response of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma to sorafenib: case report and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND

The multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor sorafenib was the first agent to demonstrate a significant improvement in overall survival in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, survival under sorafenib treatment is still lower than 1 year in most patients in clinical practice. Sorafenib rarely produces radiological tumor regression, pointing out limitations in using conventional radiological assessment of response to targeted therapy. Serial alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) measurement may be useful in monitoring treatment response in patients with advanced HCC undergoing systemic therapy; however, this approach is poorly defined for the case of sorafenib.

CASE REPORT

We herein report the case of a 48-year-old patient with advanced HCC presenting with normalization of highly elevated AFP levels after 5 months of reduced-dose sorafenib treatment, resulting in a sustained radiological and clinical response.

CONCLUSIONS

Complete response to sorafenib may be possible in a small subgroup of patients with advanced HCC, strongly depending on one or more of the targets inhibited by sorafenib. Serial AFP measurement may provide additional information in monitoring treatment response to sorafenib and should be evaluated in future clinical trials in advanced HCC.