Progress in systemic therapy of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Primary liver cancer, mainly consisting of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is one of common malignancies worldwide, and prevalent among the Chinese population. A diagnosis of early stage HCC has proven to be very difficult because of its insidious feature in onset and development. At the time of diagnosis, most HCC cases are locally advanced and/or distant metastatic, which results in difficulty to be treated and poor prognosis. For advanced HCC, systemic therapy is frequently adopted as an important palliative method. In recent years, clinical studies and observations have often reported about systemic anti-cancer therapy of advanced HCC, including molecular target therapy, systemic chemotherapy and immunotherapy. In this article, we review these treatment modalities to provide a reference for clinicians.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Systemic therapy; Molecular targeted therapy; Chemotherapy; Progress

Core tip: This review describes the progress in systemic therapy of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in recent years from several aspects. First, we describe the progress in molecular targeted therapy of HCC. Second, we highlight systemic chemotherapy especially oxaliplatin-based regimens. Third, we introduce some new information of immunotherapy and arginine deprivation therapy. At the end of the article, we have a brief summary and discuss the future direction of development.