Interrupted Crosstalk between Natural Killer Cells and Anti-epidermal Growth Factor Receptor: A Possible Role in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment Failure

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major health problem worldwide. Most patients are diagnosed for the first time at late stages, which leads to very poor prognosis. It is challenging to discover strategies for treatment at these advanced stages. Recently, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting specific cellular signaling pathways in HCC have been developed. Unfortunately, they still have a low survival rate, and some of them failed clinically to produce effective responses even if they showed very good results against HCC in preclinical studies. This review focuses on and discusses the possible causes for the failure of mAbs, precisely anti-Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) mAb and the crosstalk between this mAb and patients' NK cells.

Keywords: ADCC.; HCC immunotherapy; NK; anti-EGFR mAb; molecular target therapy; tumor microenvironment.