title: Advanced Hepatocellular Cancer: the Current State of Future Research.
abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma is a common malignancy worldwide, rapidly rising in incidence. While there have been some developments in advancing therapeutic options in this disease, these have admittedly been modest to date, and as a result, this is a patient population with an inherently poor prognosis. Currently, sorafenib remains the only established systemic therapy proven to increase the overall survival of patients with advanced disease. The approval of sorafenib in 2007 ushered in the era of targeted therapies. Several phase 2 and 3 clinical trials have failed however to improve on sorafenib in the first-line setting, and no single agent has been demonstrated to impact outcomes after sorafenib failure. Having reached somewhat of an impasse in terms of drug development in hepatocellular carcinoma, enthusiasm in the field has moved toward innovative approaches such as molecular characterization and immunotherapy in an attempt to impact survival. This review highlights the current endeavors in terms of experimental research for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 300 East 66th Street, New York, NY, 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Louise C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Connell
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 300 East 66th Street, New York, NY, 10065, USA.|Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, 10065, USA.
authors.forename: James J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Harding
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 300 East 66th Street, New York, NY, 10065, USA. abou-alg@mskcc.org.|Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, 10065, USA. abou-alg@mskcc.org.
authors.forename: Ghassan K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Abou-Alfa
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D019468:Disease Management; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism; D019233:Retreatment; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Angiogenic; Cabozantinib; Doxorubicin; Everolimus; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Immunotherapy; MEDI4736; Nivolumab; Pegylated arginine deiminase (ADI-PEG 20); Sorafenib; Targeted therapy; Tivantinib; Tremelimumab