ALBI Grade Enables Risk Stratification for Bleeding Events and Refines Prognostic Prediction in Advanced HCC Following Atezolizumab and Bevacizumab

Background and Aims: Atezolizumab and bevacizumab (A+B) are recommended for treating unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although highly effective, A+B can lead to potentially life-threatening adverse events including bleeding. We investigated whether albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) grade identifies patients with a higher risk of bleeding and its impact on prognosis than the Child-Pugh (CP) score. Methods: We performed a multicenter retrospective study of 15 tertiary referral centers that consecutively treated patients with A+B. We analyzed the association between the ALBI grade and gastrointestinal bleeding using the χ2 test. Overall survival (OS) stratified by ALBI was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and the predictive value for the 6-months OS landmark with ROC curves. Results: Of the 368 patients included in the analysis, 163 (44.3%), 192 (52.2%) and 13 (3.5%) had ALBI 1, ALBI 2, and ALBI 3, respectively. ALBI grade was associated with a 3-fold increase in bleeding risk (3.1% in ALBI 1 vs 10.2% in ALBI 2/3, p=0.008). Among 192 patients with pre-treatment EGD, G2 and G3 varices were associated with an increased risk of bleeding, whereas G1 varices had a similar risk as no varices. Patients with ALBI 1 achieved a longer median OS (not reached; 95% CI, 24.9–33.7), than ALBI 2 (9.7 months; 95% CI, 7.0–12.3) or ALBI 3 (5.6 months; 95% CI, 0.1–12.0). ALBI outperformed the CP score for predicting 6-month OS with an AUC 0.79 of ALBI versus 0.71 for the CP score (p=0.01). Conclusion: A Higher ALBI grade was associated with an increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding after receiving A+B, and outperformed the CP score in predicting worse survival.