Combination treatment including targeted therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma

// Jianzhen Lin 1,* , Liangcai Wu 1,* , Xue Bai 1,* , Yuan Xie 1 , Anqiang Wang 1 , Haohai Zhang 1 , Xiaobo Yang 1 , Xueshuai Wan 1 , Xin Lu 1 , Xinting Sang 1 and Haitao Zhao 1,2 1 Department of Liver Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College (CAMS & PUMC), Beijing, China 2 Center of Translational Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Xin Lu, email: // Xinting Sang, email: // Haitao Zhao, email: // Keywords : targeted therapy, combination treatment, hepatocellular carcinoma, molecular targeted agents Received : June 01, 2016 Accepted : September 05, 2016 Published : September 10, 2016 Abstract Management of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), one of the most lethal cancers worldwide, has presented a therapeutic challenge over past decades. Most patients with advanced HCC and a low possibility of surgical resection have limited treatment options and no alternative but to accept local or palliative treatment. In the new era of cancer therapy, increasing numbers of molecular targeted agents (MTAs) have been applied in the treatment of advanced HCC. However, mono-targeted therapy has shown disappointing outcomes in disease control, primarily because of tumor heterogeneity and complex cell signal transduction. Because incapacitation of a single target is insufficient for cancer suppression, combination treatment for targeted therapy has been proposed and experimentally tested in several clinical trials. In this article, we review research studies aimed to enhance the efficacy of targeted therapy for HCC through combination strategies. Combination treatments involving targeted therapy for advanced HCC are compared and discussed.