Treatment Approaches for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer worldwide, and it is responsible for up to one million deaths annually. Although multiple risk factors for HCC have been identified, and despite preventive measures, the incidence of HCC continues to rise to epidemiologic proportions in the United States. In general, tumor resection and orthotopic liver transplantation are the treatment with the best outcome; however, HCC is generally diagnosed late in its course when patients are not eligible for curative treatment options. HCC is a relatively Chemo-refractory tumor secondary to heterogeneity of the tumor and the high rate of multidrug resistant gene expression. There are no standard treatments for HCC, multiple palliative treatment modalities have been used for patients with unresectable disease. None of these modalities have shown any superiority; and the retrospective nature of these available data has confounded any reasonable conclusions. Different institutions use different treatment schema dependent on the center expertise. Sorafenib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has recently demonstrated a survival advantage in metastatic HCC, and if approved by the FDA, might become the standard of care. In this article we will review the rationale behind the currently available treatment options for HCC.