Molecular Targeted Therapies in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

By J. Llovet, Jordi Bruix1 , 2. Hepatology, 2008

1,027 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a complex and heterogeneous tumor with several genomic alterations. There is evidence of aberrant activation of several signaling cascades such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), Ras/extracellular signal‐regulated kinase, phosphoinositol 3‐kinase/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), hepatocyte growth factor/mesenchymal‐epithelial transition factor, Wnt, Hedgehog, and apoptotic signaling. Recently a multikinase inhibitor, sorafenib, has shown survival benefits in patients with advanced HCC. This advancement represents a breakthrough in the treatment of this complex disease and proves that molecular therapies can be effective in HCC. It is becoming apparent, however, that to overcome the complexity of genomic aberrations in HCC, combination therapies will be critical. Phase II studies have tested drugs blocking EGFR, vascular endothelial growth factor/platelet‐derived growth factor receptor, and mTOR signaling. No relevant data has been produced so far in combination therapies. Future research is expected to identify new compounds to block important undruggable pathways, such as Wnt signaling, and to identify new oncogenes as targets for therapies through novel high‐throughput technologies. Recent guidelines have established a new frame for the design of clinical trials in HCC. Randomized phase II trials with a time‐to‐progression endpoint are proposed as pivotal for capturing benefits from novel drugs. Survival remains the main endpoint to measure effectiveness in phase III studies. Patients assigned to the control arm should receive standard‐of‐care therapy, that is, chemoembolization for patients with intermediate‐stage disease and sorafenib for patients with advanced‐stage disease. Biomarkers and molecular imaging should be part of the trials, in order to optimize the enrichment of study populations and identify drug responders. Ultimately, a molecular classification of HCC based on genome‐wide investigations and identification of patient subclasses according to drug responsiveness will lead to a more personalized medicine. (HEPATOLOGY 2008;48:1312–1327.)

Subfields: Hepatology, Pathology and Forensic Medicine

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cb2252a0d1f2fae662375b1185c7b11092decf6c

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Citations in the corpus

Hepatocellular carcinoma incidence, mortality, and survival trends in the United States from 1975 to 2005. (2009, background): “The advent of targeted HCC therapies holds promise for further improvement in prognosis among patients with regional and distant-stage HCC.(30) Racial variation was seen in 1-year cause-specific survival rates.”
Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver consensus recommendations on hepatocellular carcinoma (2010, background): “Recent advances in elucidating the molecular mechanisms of hepatocarcinogenesis have provided opportunities to develop molecular targeted therapy (MTT) for advanced HCC [344].”
EASL-EORTC clinical practice guidelines: management of hepatocellular carcinoma. (2012, background): “Intermediate HCC (BCLC stage B): Untreated patients at an intermediate stage – BCLC B class (multinodular asymptomatic tumors without an invasive pattern) present a median survival of 16 months [139,164], or 49% at 2 year [133].”
Integrative Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Common Molecular Subclasses of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma (2009, background): “, h-catenin and PI3K) is likely to be different across the subsets (38).”
Current Strategy for Staging and Treatment: The BCLC Update and Future Prospects (2010, background): “As previously mentioned, ablation is highly effective and even curative in patients with small HCC.”
EASL-EORTC clinical practice guidelines: management of hepatocellular carcinoma. (2012, background): “Intermediate HCC (BCLC stage B): Untreated patients at an intermediate stage – BCLC B class (multinodular asymptomatic tumors without an invasive pattern) present a median survival of 16 months [139,164], or 49% at 2 year [133].”
Focal Gains of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A and Molecular Classification of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (2008, background): “Small-molecule inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies against IGF-IR [such as A12 (Imclone)] and mammalian target of rapamycin [such as rapamycin or everolimus (Novartis)] are still at preclinical or early clinical stage of drug development for hepatocellular carcinoma (40).”