Breakthrough and Boundaries in Management of Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Immunotherapy

作者：Vivek Shukla, Julian S. Leonn, Rebecca S. Sandrugu · 发表于：International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology (IJISRT) · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.38124/ijisrt/25dec575 · 研究领域：Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers、Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment and Prognosis、Peptidase Inhibition and Analysis

Recognizing the immune system’s anti-tumor activities is an important new method to address the shortcoming of systemic approach to treat hepatocellular carcinoma. To pursue this line of treatment, it is imperative that immune cells should differentiate between normal and cancer cells to specifically attack the cancer cells. Recently, many types of immunotherapies have been developed, and checkpoint inhibitors emerges as central point because of positive outcomes from different types of cancer. Normally, hepatocellular carcinoma has been treated with standard cytotoxic chemotherapy and in advanced stage, antiangiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) were used as systemic therapeutic approach. These treatments were not very beneficial in metastatic malignancies. Checkpoint inhibitor therapy provided better hopes as these agents enable immune cells to eradicate cancer cells precisely and effectively. Currently, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death protein 1 and its ligand (PD-1 and PD-L1) are the most popular choice of checkpoint inhibitors in management of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. In this mini review, we provide the breakthroughs coming from currently available immune checkpoint inhibitors in HCC and their boundaries in management of these malignancies.