A phase III study of doxorubicin (A) versus cisplatin (P)/ interferonα-2b (I)/ doxorubicin (A)/ fluorouracil (F) combination chemotherapy (PIAF) for inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)

A Phase II Study of Epirubicin and Thalidomide in Unresectable or Metastatic Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…Among all patients, 71 cycles of chemotherapy were administered. A median of two chemotherapy cycles was administered to each patient (range [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Seven patients (41%) completed more than four cycles of chemotherapy.…”

“…Despite initial, impressive results of combination chemotherapy using cisplatin (Platinol ® ; Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, NJ, http://www. bms.com), interferon-α, doxorubicin, and 5-fluorouracil (PIAF), with a partial response rate of 26% [6], a recently reported randomized phase III study failed to demonstrate improved overall survival in patients treated with PIAF when compared with single-agent doxorubicin [7]. The sobering conclusion is that decades of clinical research have not identified a systemic therapy with demonstrable palliative or survival benefit for patients with unresectable HCC.…”