Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. May 15, 2018; 10(5): 108-114
Published online May 15, 2018. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v10.i5.108
Targeted therapy or immunotherapy? Optimal treatment in hepatocellular carcinoma
Merly Contratto, Jennifer Wu
Merly Contratto, Jennifer Wu, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, United States
Author contributions: Wu J provided the concept, the outline, the structure, major references for this manuscript and provided critical revisions for this manuscript; Contratto M drafted the majority of the manuscript and incorporated several revisions based on feedback from Wu J; all authors approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is 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: Jennifer Wu, MD, Associate Professor, Attending Doctor, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York University School of Medicine, 462 First Ave, BCD556, New York, NY 10016, United States. jennifer.wu@nyumc.org
Telephone: +1-212-2636530 Fax: +1-212-2638210
Received: February 5, 2018
Peer-review started: February 7, 2018
First decision: March 8, 2018
Revised: March 14, 2018
Accepted: April 10, 2018
Article in press: April 11, 2018
Published online: May 15, 2018
Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Sorafenib is the only food and drug administration (FDA) approved as first line systemic treatment in HCC. Regorafenib and nivolumab are the only FDA approved second line treatment after progression on sorafenib. We will discuss all potential first and second line options in HCC. In addition, we also will explore sequencing treatment options in HCC, and examine biomarkers that can potentially predict benefits from treatments such as immune checkpoint inhibitor. This minireview summarizes potential treatments in HCC based on clinical trials that have been published in manuscript or abstract format from 1994-2018.

Keywords: Sequencing treatment, Sorafenib, Hepatocellular carcinoma treatments, Nivolumab, Regorafenib, Lenvatinib, Cabozantinib, Immunotherapy, Biomarker, Pembrolizumab, Ramucirumab, Alpha-fetoprotein, Neoantigen, Tumor mutational burden, Interferon-gamma

Core tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. There are some potential treatment options for first and second line HCC, there are also new biomarkers that can predict benefits from treatments such as immune checkpoint inhibitors.