Immunotherapy for hepacellular carcinoma: where there is hope, there is brightness / 中华消化外科杂志

ABSTRACT

China has about half of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients worldwide, and the efficay of targeted therapy and systematic chemotherapy for HCC is limited. The treatment stategies based on immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) bring hope to patients. Especially, the success of ICIs plus anti-angiogenic drugs as the first-line treatment in HCC open the combinational immunotherapy model for HCC, which inludes targeted therapy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, oncolytic virotherapy and another immunotherapy. However, most patients do not derive benefits from these agents or combinational treatments, due to innate and acquired immune resistance. The authors elaborate on hot and difficult subjects of immunotherapy for HCC, and formulate the potential striving direction. It is critical to understand the determinants driving response, resistance and adverse effects to optimize the implementation of precision immunotherapy. Overall manage-ment of HCC patients with multidesciplinary team and high integration should be strengthened. More effective immunotherapeutic strategies may be achieved though deeper understanding of the underlying immune biology, targeted drug development and new comprehensive strategies. All the above efforts are for aims and missions of"Healthy China 2030".