title: Angiogenesis Inhibitors for the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
abstract: Background: Angiogenesis inhibitors have become an important therapeutic approach in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. The therapeutic inhibition of angiogenesis of Sorafenib in increasing overall survival of patients with HCC is a fundamental element of the treatment of this disease. Considering the heterogeneous aspects of HCC and to boost therapeutic efficacy, prevail over drug resistance and lessen toxicity, adding antiangiogenic drugs to antiblastic chemotherapy (AC), radiation therapy or other targeted drugs have been evaluated. The matter is additionally complicated by the combination of antiangiogenesis with further AC or biologic drugs. To date, no planned approach to understand which patients are more responsive to a given type of antiangiogenic treatment is available.Conclusion: Large investments in the clinical research are essential to improve treatment response and minimize toxicities for patients with HCC. Future investigations will need to focus on utilizing patterns of genetic information to classify HCC into groups that display similar prognosis and treatment sensitivity, and combining targeted therapies with AC producing enhanced anti-tumor effect. In this review the current panel of available antiangiogenic therapies for the treatment of HCC have been analyzed. In addition current clinical trials are also reported herein.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Institute Aviano, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berretta
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical, Surgical, Neurological, Metabolic and Geriatric Sciences, Second University of Naples Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rinaldi
authors.affiliation: Liver and Multivisceral Transplant Center, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Modena, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Benedetto
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Institute Aviano, Italy.
authors.forename: Arben
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lleshi
authors.affiliation: Bioimmunotherapy of Human Cancers Unit, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico (CRO) National Cancer Institute Aviano, Italy.
authors.forename: Vallì
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: De Re
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Uro-Gynaecological Oncology, Istituto Nazionale Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale"-IRCCS Naples Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Facchini
authors.affiliation: Scientific Directorate, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico (CRO) National Cancer Institute Aviano, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Paoli
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Istituto Nazionale Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale"-IRCCS Naples Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Francia
keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma; inhibitors and toxicity; neo-angiogenesis; pharmacogenomics; target therapy; treatment