Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary liver cancer that commonly arises in the background of chronic liver inflammation and/or cirrhosis. Chronic liver inflammation results in the production of different growth factors, remodeling of the microenvironment architecture into fibrosis, and eventually carcinogenesis. Overexpression of some growth factors has been associated with worse prognosis in patients with HCC. Targeted therapies against growth factors may disrupt cell signaling and the mechanisms that allow for cell survival (e.g. angiogenesis, proliferation, metastases).
Areas covered: We herein review potential growth factor targets of HCC and the limited research that exists regarding targeted therapy of these ligands and their receptors. We performed an extensive literature search to investigate preclinical studies, clinical research, and clinical trials.
Expert opinion: Systemic therapy for patients with HCC is continuing to evolve. Anti-angiogenic therapy holds the most promise among targeted therapy for growth factors among patients with HCC. Improving our understanding of growth factors in HCC will hopefully lead to the development of new targeted therapies and strategies for combination therapies with immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; anti-angiogenic therapy; growth factors; liver cancer; targeted therapy.