Montella L, Palmieri G, Addeo R, Del Prete S. Hepatocellular carcinoma: Will novel targeted drugs really impact the next future? World J Gastroenterol 2016; 22(27): 6114-6126 [PMID: 27468204 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i27.6114]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Liliana Montella, MD, Medical Oncology Unit, “San Giovanni di Dio” Hospital, via D.Pirozzi 66, Frattamaggiore, 80027 Naples, Italy. lilianamontella@libero.it
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Topic Highlight
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 21, 2016; 22(27): 6114-6126 Published online Jul 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i27.6114
Hepatocellular carcinoma: Will novel targeted drugs really impact the next future?
Liliana Montella, Giovannella Palmieri, Raffaele Addeo, Salvatore Del Prete
Liliana Montella, Raffaele Addeo, Salvatore Del Prete, Medical Oncology Unit, “San Giovanni di Dio” Hospital, Frattamaggiore, 80027 Naples, Italy
Giovannella Palmieri, Oncology Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, “Federico II” University of Naples, 80027 Naples, Italy
Author contributions: Montella L performed research and wrote the paper; Palmieri G, Addeo R and Del Prete S critically revised the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: 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/
Correspondence to: Liliana Montella, MD, Medical Oncology Unit, “San Giovanni di Dio” Hospital, via D.Pirozzi 66, Frattamaggiore, 80027 Naples, Italy. lilianamontella@libero.it
Telephone: +39-81-8891233 Fax: +39-81-8891333
Received: March 19, 2016 Peer-review started: March 22, 2016 First decision: April 14, 2016 Revised: May 9, 2016 Accepted: June 15, 2016 Article in press: June 15, 2016 Published online: July 21, 2016 Processing time: 118 Days and 15.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a tumor with increasing incidence and epidemiologic relevance. Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma that is not amenable to radical treatments (i.e., transplantation or surgical resection) has a dismal prognosis (1-2 mo). Sorafenib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor which targets multiple pro-angiogenic factors, is a cornerstone in the history of HCC treatments. Since the introduction of sorafenib, novel biological drugs have been investigated in hepatocellular carcinoma patients, but no monotherapy or combination therapy has significantly improved outcomes in clinical trials. Insights into tumor gene profile are critical in recognizing various classes of hepatocellular carcinoma in order to help determine which therapeutic approaches will be beneficial. Well-designed clinical trials may disclose differences in efficacy end-points, thus leading the way to clinical use.
