We read with great interest the article by Yopp et al.1 reporting the updated data from the IMbrave050 trial, which demonstrated that adjuvant atezolizumab plus bevacizumab failed to sustain the initial recurrence-free survival (RFS) benefit in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after curative resection. Notably, subgroup analysis revealed a trend toward improved RFS in patients with tumor burden exceeding the “up-to-7” criteria (16.9 vs 13.7 months). This finding suggests that future work should focus on refining and precisely defining high-risk population selection criteria to identify optimal beneficiaries, thereby avoiding discounting the therapeutic potential of adjuvant immunotherapy under precise patient selection due to the trial’s overall negative results.
We read with great interest the article by Yopp et al.1 reporting the updated data from the IMbrave050 trial, which demonstrated that adjuvant atezolizumab plus bevacizumab failed to sustain the initial recurrence-free survival (RFS) benefit in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after curative resection. Notably, subgroup analysis revealed a trend toward improved RFS in patients with tumor burden exceeding the “up-to-7” criteria (16.9 vs 13.7 months). This finding suggests that future work should focus on refining and precisely defining high-risk population selection criteria to identify optimal beneficiaries, thereby avoiding discounting the therapeutic potential of adjuvant immunotherapy under precise patient selection due to the trial’s overall negative results.