Opinion Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 28, 2021; 27(24): 3429-3439
Published online Jun 28, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i24.3429
Trial eligibility in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: Does it support clinical practice in underrepresented subgroups?
Federico Piñero, Leonardo Gomes da Fonseca
Federico Piñero, Hepatology and Liver Unit, Hospital Universitario Austral, School of Medicine, Austral University, Buenos Aires B1629HJ, Argentina
Leonardo Gomes da Fonseca, Clinical Oncology, Insituto do Cancer do Estado de São Paulo, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05403-000, Brazil
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review, drafting, critical revision and editing; they all have approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: F Piñero has received Advisory Board and speaker honoraria, and he is consultant for RAFFO, BAYER, LKM-Biotoscana and ROCHE; research grants from the Argentinean National Institute of Cancer (INC ID-190), Argentinean National Ministry of Science and Technology Development (PICT 2017, FONCYT) and from the Latin American Liver Research Educational and Awareness Network (LALREAN).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: Federico Piñero, MD, MSc, Academic Research, Doctor, Hepatology and Liver Unit, Hospital Universitario Austral, School of Medicine, Austral University, Av. Presidente Perón 1500, Pilar, Buenos Aires B1629HJ, Argentina. fpinerof@cas.austral.edu.ar
Received: March 17, 2021
Peer-review started: March 17, 2021
First decision: May 1, 2021
Revised: May 6, 2021
Accepted: May 20, 2021
Article in press: May 20, 2021
Published online: June 28, 2021
Processing time: 99 Days and 17.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The strict criteria used in clinical trials in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma have led to a scarcity of available data in a considerable proportion of patients in the real-world practice. The daily challenge of treating these underrepresented subgroups can be overcome by future clinical trials addressing special situations, collaborative studies and real-world data.