Prognostic value of plasma hPG80 (circulating progastrin), alone or in combination with Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
#3033 Poster Session
Alexandre Prieur, Eric Assenat, Marie Dupuy, Sarah Iltache, Berengere Vire, Julien Soule, Pierre Liaud, Thierry Cousin, Younes Mahi, Dominique Joubert; ECS-Progastrin, Prilly, Switzerland; Montpellier Hos- pital, CHRU Saint Eloi, Montpellier, France; CHRU Montpellier, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France; CHRU Montpellier, Montpellier, France; EurBioDev, Montpellier, France; Eurobiodev, 2040 Avenue du Pere Soulas, Montpellier, France; Eurobiodev France, Montpellier, France; ECS Progastrin, Prilly, Switzerland
Background: Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is the most widely used biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) prognosis since it is expressed in the advanced stages of the disease. Consequently, AFP is not useful in establishing a prognosis for patients with a tumor in the early stages of the disease. hPG80 (cir- culating progastrin), a new drug target for cancer treatment which plays a pivotal role in tumorigenesis, is present in the blood of multiple types of cancers at early stages including HCC. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of plasma hPG80 in patients with HCC, in combination or not with AFP.
Methods: A total of 168 HCC patients (BCLC from 0 to D) managed with local or systemic treatments, (Liverpool biobank) were enrolled prospectively and analyzed retrospectively. hPG80 was quantified using DxPG80 Lab kit (ECS-Progastrin) and AFP was quantified using Cobas E411 in the blood of HCC patients. An optimal cutoff value of hPG80 was identified at 4.5 pM by calculating the minimal p-value based on the log-rank method. For AFP, a cutoff of 100 ng/mL was used as for liver transplantation (Notarpaolo, 2016). The prognostic impact of hPG80 and AFP levels on patient survival was assessed using Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests.
Results: The median overall survival (OS) of the full cohort is 20.9 months. HCC patients with high hPG80 levels (hPG80+: >4.5 pM, 105/168) had significantly lower median OS compared to patients with low hPG80 levels (hPG80-: <4.5 pM, 63/168) (12.4 months versus undefined respectively, p < 0.0001). Patients with high AFP (AFP+: >100 ng/ mL, 69/165) had significantly lower median OS compared to patients with low AFP (AFP: <100 ng/mL 96/165) (7.2 months versus undefined, p < 0.0001). To improve the stratification, the patients were further categorized into four groups: hPG80-/AFP- (n = 42), hPG80+/AFP- (n = 54), hPG80-/AFP+ (n = 21) and hPG80+/AFP+ (n = 48). In the AFP- group, hPG80+ patients exhibited a significantly worse prognosis than those with hPG80- (26.3 months versus undefined, p=0.0087). Similarly, in the AFP+ group, patients with hPG80+ had a significantly worse survival compared to hPG80- patients (5.7 months versus 13.4 months, p = 0.0391). Finally, we evaluated the median OS of AFP+ patients ac- cording to BCLC staging. Interestingly, in the group BCLC 0 to B, hPG80+ had a significantly worse prognosis than those with hPG80- (15.8 months versus 40.25 months, p=0.0317).
Conclusions: Our findings show that hPG80 could serve as a new prognostic biomarker in HCC. Used in combination with AFP, it improves the stratification of the patients in good and worst prognosis, especially for those pa- tients with negative AFP and early-stage HCC. Research Sponsor: None.
Presenter: Alexandre Prieur, PhD
Meeting: 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting Session Type: Poster Session Session
Title: Developmental Therapeutics—Molecularly Targeted Agents and Tumor Biology
Track:Developmental Therapeutics—Molecularly Targeted Agents and Tumor Biology
Subtrack: Circulating Biomarkers
Abstract #: 3033
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