Research progress in immunotherapy and biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract: The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in China ranked fourth among all malignant tumors, and the mortality rate ranked second in 2015. Approximately 85% of Chinese patients are in the intermediate stage or advanced stage at the first visit and lose the best treatment chance. The 5-year survival rate of them is only 12%. Since 2007, treatments for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma mostly focused on targeted therapy, with limited efficacy. In recent years, immune checkpoint inhibitors have achieved 17% ~ 20% and 15% ~ 20% objective response rate in first-line and second-line monotherapy respectively. Immunotherapy shows obviously anti-tumor effect that is superior to traditional targeted therapy. Initial results have also achieved in the field of neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy for HCC. However, several challenges such as treatment selection after disease progression and disease recurrence after liver transplantation are still unsolved. Exploring immune-specific biomarkers to predict the efficacy has also become an important direction in the field of immunotherapy. In this review, we summarized the research progress of immunotherapy and biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Immunotherapy, Biomarkers

Peng Xuenan, Zhou Aiping. Research progress in immunotherapy and biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma[J]. Electronic Journal of Liver Tumor, 2020, 7(4): 17-22.

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