Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Aug 18, 2016; 8(23): 957-960
Published online Aug 18, 2016. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v8.i23.957
Adjuvant sorafenib in hepatocellular carcinoma: A cautionary comment of STORM trial
Jian-Hong Zhong, Xue-Ke Du, Bang-De Xiang, Le-Qun Li
Jian-Hong Zhong, Bang-De Xiang, Le-Qun Li, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Xue-Ke Du, Department of Anesthesia, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Author contributions: Zhong JH, Du XK and Xiang BD contributed equally to this work; Zhong JH and Du XK designed the study and wrote the manuscript; Zhong JH, Xiang BD and Li LQ analyzed the data from the included studies; all authors reviewed the manuscript and approved publication.
Supported by Guangxi Science and Technology Development Projects, No. 14124003-4; Guangxi University of Science and Technology Research Projects, No. KY2015LX056; the Self-Raised Scientific Research Fund of the Ministry of Health of Guangxi Province, Nos. Z2015621, Z2015601, GZZC15-34 and Z2014241; and the Innovation Project of Guangxi Graduate Education, No. YCBZ2015030.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this manuscript.
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: Le-Qun Li, MD, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, He Di Rd #71, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. xitongpingjia@163.com
Telephone: +86-771-5330855 Fax: +86-771-5312000
Received: April 29, 2016
Peer-review started: May 4, 2016
First decision: July 4, 2016
Revised: July 6, 2016
Accepted: July 29, 2016
Article in press: August 1, 2016
Published online: August 18, 2016
Abstract

Recurrence rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is very high even after curative surgery, and no postoperative therapies have been definitively shown to prevent HCC recurrence. Sorafenib is proved to be effective for advanced HCC by two large randomized controlled trials in 2008 and 2009. Therefore it stands to reason to expect that adjuvant sorafenib may improve post-surgery outcomes of patients with HCC. However, many questions still exist about the value of sorafenib for patients with HCC after surgery or transarterial chemoembolization. In this editorial, we complehensively reviewed the safety and efficacy of adjuvant sorafenib for patients with hepatocellar carcinoma after surgery or transarterial chemoembolization. We emphasized the positive and negative role of sorafenib.

Keywords: Adjuvant, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Tumor recurrence, Sorafenib

Core tip: Sorafenib is effective for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, its positive role as adjuvant therapy for HCC after surgery or transarterial chemoembolization is controversy.