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Immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma

Clinical and Experimental Medicine (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a primary malignancy of the liver, is a threat to the health of all humans as a prevalent malignancy and is the sixth most common cancer worldwide. It is difficult to diagnose because symptoms do not show up until late in the disease, and patients often progress to the point where transplantation, resection, or even local treatment cannot be performed. The progression of HCC is regulated by the immune system, and immunotherapy enables the body's immune system's defenses to target liver cancer cells; therefore, immunotherapy has brought a new hope for the treatment of HCC. Currently, the main types of immunotherapies for liver cancer are: immune checkpoint inhibitors, liver cancer vaccines and cellular therapies. In this review, the progress of immunotherapy for the treatment of HCC is summarized.

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Fig. 1

Abbreviations

HCC:

Hepatocellular carcinoma

HBV:

Hepatitis B virus

HCV:

Hepatitis C virus

BCLC:

Barcelona Clinical Liver Cancer

ICIs:

Immune checkpoint inhibitors

ORR:

Objective response rate

mOS:

Median overall survival

mPFS:

Median progression-free survival

mDOR:

Median duration remission of response

TAAs:

Tumor-associated antigens

AFP:

Alpha-fetoprotein

AdV:

Replication-deficient adenovirus

GPC3:

Glypican-3

CTL:

T cytotoxicity

OS:

Overall survival

MRP3:

Multidrug resistance-associated protein 3

hTERT:

Human telomerase reverse transcriptase

CTA:

Cancer testicular antigen

DC:

Dendritic cell

APCs:

Antigen-presenting cells

LNPs:

Lipid nanoparticles

GM-CSF:

Granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor

MHC:

Major histocompatibility complex

PTK:

Protein tyrosine kinase

TPK:

Tyrosine protein kinase

EGFR:

Epidermal growth factor receptor

CRS:

Cytokine release syndrome

TKI:

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors

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Funding

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81902914); Jiangsu Provincial Medical Youth Talent (No. QNRC2016043); and the Key Medical Science and Technology Development Project of Nanjing (No. ZKX16032.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Comprehensive Cancer Centre of Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Clinical College of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China

    Mingzhen Zhou, Baorui Liu & Jie Shen

  2. The Comprehensive Cancer Centre of Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Clinical Cancer Institute of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Mingzhen Zhou, Baorui Liu & Jie Shen

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  1. Mingzhen Zhou
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Mingzhen Zhou and Jie Shen composed the manuscript and provided figures. Baorui Liu reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors interpreted the data, critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual contents and approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Jie Shen.

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Zhou, M., Liu, B. & Shen, J. Immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma. Clin Exp Med (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10238-022-00874-5

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Keywords

  • HCC
  • Immunotherapy
  • ICIs
  • Vaccine
  • CAR-T