How Immunotherapy Has Changed the Continuum of Care in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Simple Summary HCC is a very aggressive disease and patients diagnosed in an advanced/metastatic setting obtain poor survival outcomes with standard treatments. In recent years, the introduction of immunotherapy strategies, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors as single agents and in combination with already approved local and systemic treatments, has strongly changed the therapeutic landscape of HCC. Soon, the discovery of novel potential immune targets, together with the understanding of potential biomarkers of resistance, will help to better define novel treatment opportunities for patients with HCC. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The use of local treatment, such as surgical resection, liver transplant, and local ablation, has improved the survival of patients with HCC detected at an early stage. Until recently, the treatment of patients with metastatic disease was limited to the use of the multikinase inhibitor (MKI) sorafenib with a marginal effect on survival outcome. New target approaches, such as the oral MKI lenvatinib in first-line treatment and regorafenib, ramucirumab, and cabozantinib in later lines of therapy, have demonstrated efficacy in patients with preserved liver function (Child-Pugh class A) and good performance status. On the other hand, the implementation of immune checkpoint inhibitors directed against PD-1 (nivolumab and pembrolizumab), PD-L1 (atezolizumab), and anti-CTLA4 (ipilimumab) in the management of advanced HCC has strongly changed the continuum of care of HCC. Future research should include the evaluation of molecular biomarkers that can help patient selection and provide new insight on potential combined approaches. In this review, we provide an overview of the clinical evidence of the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in HCC, and discuss how immunotherapy has been implemented into the continuum of HCC care.

Automated summary

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a very aggressive disease with poor survival outcomes in advanced/metastatic settings, but recent introduction of immunotherapy strategies has changed the therapeutic landscape significantly. Local treatments such as surgical resection and liver transplant improve survival for early-stage HCC, while new target approaches and immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown efficacy for patients with preserved liver function. Future research should focus on molecular biomarkers for patient selection and potential combined approaches.