Prevalence and clinical characteristics of patients with brain metastases at diagnosis with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in a retrospective registry.

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Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a cancer with poor prognosis and rising incidence. The combination of atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (A+B) prolongs survival as 1 ^st line therapy in advanced HCC (aHCC) but confers a rare risk of serious bleeding. HCC brain metastases (BM) have high hemorrhage rates and contraindicate the A+B regimen. Alternative immunotherapies also prolong survival without increased bleeding risk. We conducted a retrospective review of a large, diverse, cancer center registry to estimate the prevalence of and identify clinical characteristics associated with BM in aHCC. Methods: The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (HDFCCC) registry was queried for new cases of HCC between 2004 and 2022. AJCC stage III or IV were defined as aHCC. Cases with central nervous system (CNS) metastases (including brain as well as skull, face, or orbit as adjacent high-risk sites) at diagnosis were identified. Key clinical covariates including demographics, liver disease etiology, and symptomatology were described. Results: Among 4002 new HCC cases, 832 were classified as aHCC. 12/832 (1.4%, 95% CI: 0.8, 2.5) had synchronous BM. Key demographics are displayed in Table. 10/12 (83%) patients with BM were symptomatic, including headache (25%), neurologic deficits (67%), and/or syncope (8%). Bleeding complications and/or hemorrhagic features were reported in 17%. Conclusions: BM are rare at diagnosis with aHCC, present in only 1.4% of this registry dataset. The majority (83%) were symptomatic, suggesting that routine CNS imaging may not have clinical utility in asymptomatic patients. A high proportion with BM at diagnosis had viral etiology. Limitations of this retrospective registry analysis include potential for underdiagnosis in asymptomatic patients and incomplete data for clinical covariates.

Clinical characteristics of aHCC cases with BM at diagnosis between 2004-2022 in UCSF HDFCCC Registry.