Impact of body mass index on the prognosis of unresectable HCC patients receiving first‐line Lenvatinib or atezolizumab plus bevacizumab

Abstract Introduction Overweight is a negative prognostic factor in the general population in the long term. However, the role of body mass index (BMI) in the short‐mid term in advanced tumours is unclear. The present analysis investigates the role of BMI weight classes in a large sample of patients affected by HCC and receiving atezolizumab plus bevacizumab or lenvatinib as first‐line treatment. Methods and Material The cohort included consecutive patients affected by BCLC‐c and BCLC‐B HCC patients from a multicenter international study group who received atezolizumab plus bevacizumab or lenvatinib as first‐line therapy. Population was stratified according to the BMI in under‐, over‐ and normal‐weight according to the conventional thresholds. The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the prognostic and predictive impact of BMI in patients affected by advanced or intermediate HCC. Survival curves were estimated using the product‐limit method of Kaplan–Meier. The role of stratification factors was analysed with log‐rank tests. Results 1292 consecutive patients with HCC were analysed. 466 (36%) patients were treated with lenvatinib and 826 (64%) patients were treated with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab. In the atezolizumab plus bevacizumab arm, 510 (62%) patients were normal‐weight, 52 (6%) underweight and 264 (32%) overweight. At the univariate analysis for OS, underweight patients had significantly shorter OS compared to normal‐weight patients, whereas no differences were found between normal‐weight versus overweight. Multivariate analysis confirmed that underweight patients had significantly shorter OS compared to normal‐weight patients (HR: 1.7; 95% CI: 1.0–2.8; p = .0323). In the lenvatinib arm, 26 patients (5.6%) were categorized as underweight, 256 (54.9%) as normal‐weight, and 184 (39.5%) as overweight. At the univariate analysis for OS, no significant differences were found between normal‐weight versus underweight and between normal‐weight versus overweight, which was confirmed at multivariate analysis. Conclusion Our analysis highlighted a prognostic role of BMI in a cohort of patients with advanced HCC who received atezolizumab plus bevacizumab, while no prognostic role for low BMI was apparent in patients who received lenvatinib.