Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Oct 15, 2024; 16(10): 4289-4297
Published online Oct 15, 2024. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v16.i10.4289
Conversion therapy for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: Advances and challenges
Yan-Fei He
Yan-Fei He, Department of Health Management Center, The Sixth Medical Center, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing 100048, China
Author contributions: He YF designed the study, collected the data, reviewed the literature, drafted and revised the manuscript, and have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict 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: Yan-Fei He, MD, Associate Chief Physician, Doctor, Department of Health Management Center, The Sixth Medical Center, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, No. 6 Fucheng Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100048, China. heyanfeilc@163.com
Received: March 2, 2024
Revised: August 29, 2024
Accepted: September 5, 2024
Published online: October 15, 2024
Processing time: 208 Days and 6.4 Hours
Abstract

Recently, the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology published an article entitled “Pathologically successful conversion hepatectomy for advanced giant hepatocellular carcinoma after multidisciplinary therapy: A case report and review of the literature”, in which the authors shared their successful experience with complete surgical resection after multidisciplinary conversion therapy. The study by Chu et al demonstrates the great challenges that the advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) poses to surgical oncology, reveals the complexity of conversion therapy for unresectable HCC, emphasizes the important role of a multidisciplinary management model in conversion therapy, and enriches our understanding of the dynamics of personalized treatment for different patients. At present, conversion therapy is a hot research topic in the treatment of unresectable HCC, which has brought new hope to many patients with moderately advanced HCC. However, there are still many urgent problems to be solved in conversion therapy. Here, we would like to further discuss the advances and challenges of conversion therapy for unresectable HCC with the authors and the general readers.

Keywords: Unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma; Conversion therapy; Challenges; Advances; Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma; Targeted therapy; Immunotherapy

Core Tip: This letter reviews recent advances in conversion therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), comparatively describes the characteristics of different conversion programs, addresses current challenges in conversion therapy, highlights the complexity of conversion therapy for moderately advanced HCC, and emphasizes the importance of a multidisciplinary, team-based management model, and provides valuable insights into the treatment of unresectable HCC.