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World J Gastroenterol. Feb 14, 2023; 29(6): 1054-1075
Published online Feb 14, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i6.1054
Immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma: Current status and future perspectives
Deepa S Mandlik, Satish K Mandlik, Heena B Choudhary
Deepa S Mandlik, Heena B Choudhary, Department of Pharmacology, BVDU, Poona College of Pharmacy, Pune 411038, Maharashtra, India
Satish K Mandlik, Department of Pharmaceutics, BVDU, Poona College of Pharmacy, Pune 411038, Maharashtra, India
Author contributions: Mandlik DS, Mandlik SK, and Choudhary HB were responsible for literature research and drafting of the manuscript; All authors have read and approved the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Deepa S Mandlik, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, BVDU, Poona College of Pharmacy, Kothrud, Pune 411038, Maharashtra, India. deepa.mandlik@bharatividyapeeth.edu
Received: September 29, 2022
Peer-review started: September 29, 2022
First decision: December 12, 2022
Revised: December 23, 2022
Accepted: January 20, 2023
Article in press: January 20, 2023
Published online: February 14, 2023
Processing time: 133 Days and 16.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a multifaceted illness with multiple faces. It avoids early discovery, which provides the best chance of cure by resection/transplant, and systemic treatments are only of marginal efficacy at best, despite recent therapeutic advances. Current advances in immunotherapy and its combinations have altered the HCC treatment landscape, and clinical studies are continuing to pave the path forward. Immunotherapy increases survival rates and provides long-term cancer control in subsets of HCC patients while also minimizing side effects. Further research into immunotherapy in combination with current treatments for HCC in the early and intermediate stages may assist a greater spectrum of patients. Continued research into programmed cell death-1/ programmed cell death ligand 1, TMB, ctDNA, microsatellite stability, DNA mismatch repair, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, cytokines, and cellular peripheral immune response will hopefully identify the most reliable marker for selecting and sequencing systemic treatments to achieve the best outcome in HCC patients. Despite such significant treatment advances in HCC, numerous hurdles remain. The scientific community must figure out how to appropriately sequence these medicines for the best potential response, how to control toxicities, and how to develop indicators to monitor for response and relapse.