Targeted therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a highly lethal disease that is resistant to traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy. The last 30 years of chemotherapy clinical trials for advanced HCC have repeatedly failed to demonstrate any survival benefit for a long list of drugs. However a survival advantage was recently established for sorafenib, instituting a new standard of care for unresectable HCC. Here we review recent and ongoing studies of new therapeutic agents for HCC, including the small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, and combinations of these drugs.