Published online May 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i7.980
Peer-review started: August 29, 2014
First decision: October 14, 2014
Revised: December 22, 2014
Accepted: February 4, 2015
Article in press: February 9, 2015
Published online: May 8, 2015
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common cancer worldwide with a poor prognosis. Few strategies have been proven efficient in HCC treatment, particularly for those patients not indicated for curative resection or transplantation. Immunotherapy has been developed for decades for cancer control and is attaining more attention as a result of encouraging outcomes of new strategies such as chimeric antigen receptor T cells and immune checkpoint blockade. Right at the front of the new era of immunotherapy, we review the immunotherapy in HCC treatment, from basic research to clinical trials, covering anything from immunomodulators, tumor vaccines and adoptive immunotherapy. The mechanisms, efficacy and safety as well as the approach particulars are unveiled to assist readers to gain a concise but extensive understanding of immunotherapy of HCC.
Core tip: This paper supplies a comprehensive review of immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma from basic experiments to clinical trials. The development of interferon, chemokines, tumor vaccines, adoptive immunotherapy, including natural killer, natural killer T and T cells armed with chimeric antigen receptor, as well as regulatory T cell is summarized.