Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 7, 2019; 25(29): 3870-3896
Published online Aug 7, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i29.3870
Pharmacogenetics of the systemic treatment in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma
Elena De Mattia, Erika Cecchin, Michela Guardascione, Luisa Foltran, Tania Di Raimo, Francesco Angelini, Mario D’Andrea, Giuseppe Toffoli
Elena De Mattia, Erika Cecchin, Michela Guardascione, Tania Di Raimo, Francesco Angelini, Giuseppe Toffoli, Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano (PN) 33081, Italy
Luisa Foltran, Department of Medical Oncology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano (PN) 33081, Italy
Tania Di Raimo, Francesco Angelini, Medical Oncology and Anatomic Pathology Unit, “San Filippo Neri Hospital”, Rome 00135, Italy
Mario D’Andrea, Department of Oncology, “San Filippo Neri Hospital”, Rome 00135, Italy
Author contributions: De Mattia E performed the literature review and analysis, contributed to writing the manuscript, and elaborated the tables; Cecchin E conceptualized and edited the manuscript; Guardascione M, Foltran L and D’Andrea M contributed to writing the manuscript; Di Raimo T and Angelini F contributed to writing the manuscript and elaborated the figures; and Toffoli G was the guarantor. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
Supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, No. 668353.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Elena De Mattia, PhD, Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano (PN) 33081, Italy. edemattia@cro.it.
Telephone: +39-434-659765 Fax: +39-434-659799
Received: March 17, 2019
Peer-review started: March 18, 2019
First decision: May 14, 2019
Revised: May 23, 2019
Accepted: July 1, 2019
Article in press: July 3, 2019
Published online: August 7, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have few effective therapeutic options. Although multikinase inhibitors-such as sorafenib as first-line treatment and regorafenib in sorafenib progressors-show some overall survival benefit, unmet needs persist in the treatment of advanced HCC. Particularly, the identification of potential prognostic and predictive biomarkers for better stratifying and personalizing the treatment remains a challenge. Germ-line polymorphisms have been suggested to contribute significantly to inter-individual variability in HCC therapy outcome in terms of both toxicity and effectiveness, opening new avenues for pharmacogenetic investigation.