A treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of primary liver cancer, is to be covered by National Health Insurance (NHI) from Tuesday next week, the National Health Insurance Administration said yesterday.
Medical Review and Pharmaceutical Benefits Division head Huang Yu-wen (黃育文) said the policy covering atezolizumab plus bevacizumab combination therapy is expected to benefit 2,072 people with advanced liver cancer, allowing them to save about NT$3 million (US$95,688) in annual medical expenses.
In 2019, the NHI included three types of immune checkpoint inhibitors — nivolumab, pembrolizumab and atezolizumab — for the treatment of eight types of cancers, including liver cancer.
Photo: CNA
However, immunotherapy for liver cancer was removed from the list the following year, as NHI funding is limited and studies at the time suggested that its efficacy was not significantly better than targeted therapy, Huang said.
As more studies were conducted and clinical data collected, some countries approved the combination of atezolizumab, an immunotherapy drug, with bevacizumab, a targeted therapy drug, as the standard of care for first-line systemic therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, she said.
A study published last year showed that the median overall survival was 5.8 months longer in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma treated with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab than those treated with sorafenib, a targeted therapy drug, she said.
Huang said that as the combination therapy has been adopted as the standard first-line therapy for treating advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in clinical treatment guidelines, and considering the clinical evidence and benefits to people with liver cancer, the Pharmaceutical Benefit and Reimbursement Scheme Joint Committee on June 15 approved the inclusion of the treatment in the NHI system.
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