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New Pharmacological Developments in the Treatment of Hepatocellular Cancer

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Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver neoplasm and fourth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The survival for patients with advanced HCC is extremely poor. This is largely attributed to the lack of effective screening methods, advanced stage at presentation, limited utility of surgical intervention and ineffective medical therapy. Over the past 30 years, many conventional cytotoxic agents have been tested and have failed to confer a survival benefit. Recently, sorafenib, a multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor, was approved by the US FDA as first-line therapy in HCC as the first agent demonstrating survival benefit in this disease. Although the survival benefit demonstrated by sorafenib is moderate, molecular targeted therapy has brought new hope in the management of HCC.

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No sources of funding were used in the preparation of this review. The authors have no conflicts of interest that are directly related to the content of this review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA

    Niraj J. Gusani, Yixing Jiang, Eric T. Kimchi, Kevin F. Staveley-O’Carroll & Hua Cheng

  2. Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, Texas, 77031, USA

    Jaffer A. Ajani

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  1. Niraj J. Gusani
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Gusani, N.J., Jiang, Y., Kimchi, E.T. et al. New Pharmacological Developments in the Treatment of Hepatocellular Cancer. Drugs 69, 2533–2540 (2009). https://doi.org/10.2165/11530870-000000000-00000

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