Pan D, Liu HN, Qu PF, Ma X, Ma LY, Chen XX, Wang YQ, Qin XB, Han ZX. Progress in the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with immune combination therapy. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2024; 16(2): 273-286 [PMID: 38425407 DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v16.i2.273]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Zheng-Xiang Han, MD, Professor, Department of Oncology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, No. 99 Huaihai West Road, Quanshan District, Xuzhou 221000, Jiangsu Province, China. cnhzxyq@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Feb 15, 2024; 16(2): 273-286 Published online Feb 15, 2024. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v16.i2.273
Progress in the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with immune combination therapy
Di Pan, Hao-Nan Liu, Peng-Fei Qu, Xiao Ma, Lu-Yao Ma, Xiao-Xiao Chen, Yu-Qin Wang, Xiao-Bing Qin, Zheng-Xiang Han
Di Pan, Hao-Nan Liu, Xiao Ma, Lu-Yao Ma, Xiao-Xiao Chen, Xiao-Bing Qin, Zheng-Xiang Han, Department of Oncology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221000, Jiangsu Province, China
Peng-Fei Qu, Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221000, Jiangsu Province, China
Yu-Qin Wang, Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221000, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-first authors: Di Pan and Hao-Nan Liu.
Co-corresponding authors: Xiao-Bing Qin and Zheng-Xiang Han.
Author contributions: Han ZX and Qin XB were the leaders in actually co-ordinating the processing of submissions and undertaking the work of responding to review comments, and were often responsible for the research involved in the manuscripts, and contributed to the subject matter regardless of size. Pan D and Liu HN not only made the most and most important graphical contributions to this article, but also wrote the first draft of the article, making roughly equal contributions from article design to manuscript submission. Qin XB and Han ZX generated the idea for the study; Pan D and Liu HN analyzed and interpreted the content; Wang YQ, Qu PF, Ma X, Ma LY and Chen XX prepared the original draft; Pan D, Liu HN, Wang YQ and Qin XB are responsible for image processing; Han ZX is responsible for revising and finalizing the manuscript; All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript submitted for publication.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors, and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or any claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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: Zheng-Xiang Han, MD, Professor, Department of Oncology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, No. 99 Huaihai West Road, Quanshan District, Xuzhou 221000, Jiangsu Province, China. cnhzxyq@163.com
Received: October 6, 2023 Peer-review started: October 6, 2023 First decision: December 5, 2023 Revised: December 13, 2023 Accepted: January 8, 2024 Article in press: January 8, 2024 Published online: February 15, 2024 Processing time: 118 Days and 19.8 Hours
Abstract
Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a severe malignancy that poses a serious threat to human health. Owing to challenges in early diagnosis, most patients lose the opportunity for radical treatment when diagnosed. Nonetheless, recent advancements in cancer immunotherapy provide new directions for the treatment of HCC. For instance, monoclonal antibodies against immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) such as programmed cell death protein 1/death ligand-1 inhibitors and cytotoxic t-lymphocyte associated antigen-4 significantly improved the prognosis of patients with HCC. However, tumor cells can evade the immune system through various mechanisms. With the rapid development of genetic engineering and molecular biology, various new immunotherapies have been used to treat HCC, including ICIs, chimeric antigen receptor T cells, engineered cytokines, and certain cancer vaccines. This review summarizes the current status, research progress, and future directions of different immunotherapy strategies in the treatment of HCC.
Core Tip: Although the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in China is decreasing in all age groups, the overall treatment effect of a single immune checkpoint inhibitors regimen is often poor due to the obvious immunosuppressive features of HCC. Therefore, we review the current status, research progress and future directions of different immunotherapy strategies in HCC treatment.
