Hepatocellular carcinoma treatment: hurdles, advances and prospects (original) (raw)

Therapeutic options in hepatocellular carcinoma: a comprehensive review

Clinical and Experimental Medicine, 2023

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a chronic liver disease that is highly fatal if not detected and treated early. The incidence and death rate of HCC have been increasing in recent decades despite the measures taken for preventive screening and effective diagnostic and treatment strategies. The pathophysiology of HCC is multifactorial and highly complex owing to its molecular and immune heterogeneity, and thus the gap in knowledge still precludes making choices between viable therapeutic options and also the development of effective regimens. The treatment of HCC demands multidisciplinary approaches and primarily depends on tumor stage, hepatic functional reserve, and response to treatment by patients. Although curative treatments are limited but critical in the early stages of cancer, there are numerous palliative treatments available for patients with intermediate and advanced-stage HCC. In recent times, the use of combination therapy has succeeded over the use of monotherapy in the treatment of HCC by achieving effective tumor suppression, increasing survival rate, decreasing toxicity, and also aiding in overcoming drug resistance. This work focuses on reviewing the current and emerging treatment strategies for HCC.

Current and Future Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: An Updated Comprehensive Review

Journal of Clinical and Translational Hepatology, 2017

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the leading causes of cancer-related mortality. The principal treatment is surgical resection or liver transplantation, depending on whether the patient is a suitable transplant candidate. However, in most patients with HCC the diagnosis is often late, thereby excluding the patients from definitive surgical resection. Medical treatment includes sorafenib, which is the most commonly used systemic therapy; although, it has been shown to only minimally impact patient survival by several months. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are generally ineffective. Due to the poor prognosis of patients with HCC, newer treatments are needed with several being in development, either in preclinical or clinical studies. In this review article, we provide an update on the current and future medical and surgical management of HCC.

Hepatocellular carcinoma review: Current treatment, and evidence-based medicine

World Journal of Gastroenterology, 2014

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common tumor worldwide. Multiple treatment options are available for HCC including curative resection, liver transplantation, radiofrequency ablation, trans-arterial chemoembolization, radioembolization and systemic targeted agent like sorafenib. The treatment of HCC depends on the tumor stage, patient performance status and liver function reserve and requires a multidisciplinary approach. In the past few years with significant advances in surgical treatments and locoregional therapies, the short-term survival of HCC has improved but the recurrent disease remains a big problem. The pathogenesis of HCC is a multistep and complex process, wherein angiogenesis plays an important role. For patients with advanced disease, sorafenib is the only approved therapy, but novel systemic molecular targeted agents and their combinations are emerging. This article provides an overview of treatment of early and advanced stage HCC based on our extensive re-view of relevant literature.

Hepatocellular carcinoma clinical update: Current standards and therapeutic strategies

Liver Research, 2020

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for the vast majority of primary hepatic malignancies. The overall incidence of this disease has always been significant, but in recent years it has continued to rise, now making HCC one of the leading causes of cancer deaths worldwide. Fortunately, research into the mechanisms of carcinogenesis and treatment options for this disease has also been progressing rapidly. Although the future for new insights and therapies appears more promising than ever, it also remains important to understand both the nature of HCC and the current state-of-the-art for treating affected patients. Although surgery is often considered to be a first choice, many patients present with extensive disease and are therefore not operative candidates. Fortunately, significant clinical advances over the last decade have contributed a number of new or improved treatment options. Many of these treatments require expertise from a variety of different clinical subspecialties. Indeed, managing patients with HCC has rapidly become a multi-modality, multidisciplinary endeavor in which the details of each individual's circumstance can greatly impact outcomes, and strategies can be quite nuanced. The purpose of this review is to provide a perspective on the disease itself, the patients who become afflicted, the spectrum of currently available treatment options, and the strategies for their optimal implementation. Such knowledge can be critically important as new data become available on the research front.

Contemporary Strategies in the Management of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

HPB Surgery, 2012

Liver transplantation is the treatment of choice for selected patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) on a background of chronic liver disease. Liver resection or locoregional ablative therapies may be indicated for patients with preserved synthetic function without significant portal hypertension. Milan criteria were introduced to select suitable patients for liver transplant with low risk of tumor recurrence and 5-year survival in excess of 70%. Currently the incidence of HCC is climbing rapidly and in a current climate of organ shortage has led to the re-evaluation of locoregional therapies and resectional surgery to manage the case load. The introduction of biological therapies has had a new dimension to care, adding to the complexities of multidisciplinary team working in the management of HCC. The aim of this paper is to give a brief overview of present day management strategies and decision making.

Recent Developments and Therapeutic Strategies against Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Cancer Research

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has emerged as a major cause of cancer deaths globally. The landscape of systemic therapy has recently changed, with six additional systemic agents either approved or awaiting approval for advanced stage HCC. While these agents have the potential to improve outcomes, a survival increase of 2-5 months remains poor and falls short of what has been achieved in many other solid tumor types. The roles of genomics, underlying cirrhosis, and optimal use of treatment strategies that include radiation, liver transplantation, and surgery remain unanswered. Here, we discuss new treatment opportunities, controversies, and future directions in managing HCC.

New modalities of treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma

Journal of Contemporary Medical Sciences, 2017

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second most common cause of death from cancer worldwide. Managing HCC is difficult. However, there are many treatment options available such as liver transplantation, radiotherapy, different ablative techniques, surgery, trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and systemic therapy. These treatments did not show the promising responses and the recurrence rate is still high. On the other hand, there are some new treatments such as immunotherapy, gene therapy, combination of different therapies, Chinese traditional therapies and new targeted therapies. The aim of this study is to review both the recent changes in the common therapies and newly developed therapies of HCC.

Current Management of Hepatocellular Cancer

Current Oncology Reports, 2010

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary malignancy of the liver, being the fifth most frequent cancer worldwide. It usually occurs in the setting of chronic liver disease and has a poor prognosis if untreated. Following the diagnosis, this disease requires multidisciplinary management. Orthotopic liver transplantation is theoretically the best treatment for early, unresectable HCC. However, the major practical obstacle is the extreme shortage of organs, which makes this a practical option only in selected patients. In this report we describe new advancements in diagnosis, classification, and treatment that have emerged in the field of HCC in recent years.

Recent advances in treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

Journal of gastrointestinal & digestive system, 2013

H epatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. This malignancy occurs more often among men than women, with the highest incidence rates reported in East Asia. The incidence rates of HCC in the United States have historically been lower than in many other countries. However, in recent decades, the US age-adjusted incidence rates of HCC have doubled, and primary liver cancer mortality rates have increased faster than mortality rates for any other leading cause of cancer. Approximately 90% of primary liver cancers in the United States are HCCs, while most of the remaining 10% are intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas. The pathway leading to HCC generally begins with an acute hepatic insult, which then progresses over decades. Fibrosis and cirrhosis are typically precursors of HCC. Among patients with early stage (localized, non-multifocal) HCC, treatment options may include resection or transplantation. Chemoembolization, a combination of chemotherapy and occlusion of the tumor blood supply, is reported to improve survival in well-selected patients with unresectable HCC. Many patients who are diagnosed with HCC, however, have advanced disease and are only candidates for palliative care, contributing to a relatively low reported 5-year survival rate of approximately 10%.

Systemic Therapy for Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Past, Present, and Future

2010

Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a deadly disease with few systemic therapeutic options. Sorafenib is the only agent to be FDA approved for the first-line treatment of patients with HCC. This drug increases overall survival (OS) by 3 months compared with placebo (10.7 months with sorafenib vs. 7.7 months with placebo). More recently, the RESORCE trial demonstrated efficacy of regorafenib in the second-line treatment of HCC: OS was increased from 7.8 months with placebo to 10.6 months with regorafenib after patients experienced disease progression on sorafenib. However, there is still an unmet need for effective systemic therapy of patients with advanced HCC. Numerous genetic pathways have been studied along with drugs to target these pathways but, thus far, drugs targeting cell proliferation, metastasis, angiogenesis, and metabolite use have been studied with minimal success. HCC can be divided into two subclasses: proliferative and non-proliferative, each dependent on separate pathways. HCC can be caused by alcoholic cirrhosis, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and hepatitis B virus (HBV); however no etiology-specific therapies have been demonstrated. Immunotherapy is currently being assessed in clinical trials and is demonstrating some efficacy. More research is needed to determine the most essential pathways to target in the war against this deadly cancer.