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Liver cancer

Time to evolve trial design after everolimus failure

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a difficult-to-treat cancer and, after numerous phase III trials assessing kinase inhibitors have failed to meet their end points, sorafenib is the only accepted treatment for advanced stages of the disease. Now, the trial EVOLVE-1 has shown a lack of benefit for everolimus in the second-line treatment setting.

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Acknowledgements

J.M.L. is supported by grants from the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (1R01DK076986-01), European Commission-FP7 Framework (HEPTROMIC, Proposal No: 259,744), the Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation and the Spanish National Health Institute (SAF-2010-16055).

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Correspondence to Josep M. Llovet.

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J.M.L. is a consultant for Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Blueprint, Boeringher-Ingelheim, Bristol–Myers Squibb, Celsion, Imclone-Lilly, Novartis, and provides research support for Bayer Pharmaceuticals.

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Llovet, J. Time to evolve trial design after everolimus failure. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 11, 506–507 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.136

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