Advances in neoadjuvant therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma / 中华消化外科杂志

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the rapid development of systematic therapy and local therapy, represented by targeted therapy, immunotherapy and vascular interventional therapy, has signifi-cantly improved the therapeutic effects of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and also greatly promoted the development of neoadjuvant therapy of HCC. The main purpose of neoadjuvant therapy is to decrease the size of tumor and the difficulty of surgery, and to reduce the postoperative recurrence rate. But meanwhile it also brings potential risks such as tumor progression and loss of surgical opportunity. At present, most experts recommend that patients with Ⅱb stage and Ⅲa stage HCC according to China Liver Cancer staging system are the preferred target population for neoadjuvant therapy. However, due to the lack of high-quality medical evidence, it is recommended to be cautiously carried out after multidisciplinary discussion. Moreover, it is suggested that neoadjuvant therapy with rapid onset of effect, less and mild side effects, high objective response rate and low probability of disease progression should be carried out. The author expects that neoadjuvant therapy can further improve the prognosis of HCC, and provide more options for clinical practice.