Comparable effects of Jiedu Granule, a compound Chinese herbal medicine, and sorafenib for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: A prospective multicenter cohort study

Objective: Sorafenib has been extensively used for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC), and Chinese herbal medicine has also been used to manage advanced HCC. The present work evaluates the effectiveness and safety of Jiedu(JD) Granule, a compound of traditional Chinese herbal medicine, side-by-side with sorafenib for the treatment of advance HCC.Methods: Patients with advanced HCC receiving treatment with JD Granule or sorafenib were enrolled from December 2014 to March 2018. The primary endpoint was overall survival(OS). The secondary endpoints were progression-free survival(PFS) and safety. Propensity score matching(PSM) analysis was used to control for possible selection bias from the study group allocation process.Results: Of the 325 patients included, 161 received JD Granule and 164 received sorafenib. No significant differences were found in OS or PFS among patients receiving JD Granule compared to sorafenib(P > 0.05). Median OS of the two study groups was 6.83 months(95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.83–9.47) in the group receiving JD Granule and 8 months(95% CI: 6.67–9.80) in the group receiving sorafenib, with half-, 1-and 2-year survival rates of 53.6%, 31.2% and 13.2% vs 60.1%, 35.5% and 14.2%, respectively. Even after PSM, the median survival time did not differ between the JD Granule group(9.03 months; 95% CI: 6.37–14.2) and the sorafenib group(7.93 months; 95% CI: 6.5–9.97), with comparable half-, 1-and 2-year survival rates. The most common adverse events(AEs) were diarrhea(13.7%)and fatigue(5.6%) in the JD Granule group, and hand-foot skin reaction(46.3%) and diarrhea(36.6%) in the sorafenib group. The JD Granule was more cost-effective than sorafenib treatment for advanced HCC.Conclusion: Compared to sorafenib, JD Granule was more cost-effective and caused fewer AEs for the treatment of Chinese patients with advanced HCC.