Immune Checkpoint Blockade Therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Clinical Challenges and Considerations

Qi Zhang; Yiwen Chen; Xueli Bai; Tingbo Liang

doi:10.3389/fonc.2020.590058

Immune Checkpoint Blockade Therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Clinical Challenges and Considerations

Front Oncol. 2020 Oct 15:10:590058. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.590058. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Qi Zhang^{1

2

3

4}, Yiwen Chen^{1

2

3

4}, Xueli Bai^{1

2

3

4}, Tingbo Liang^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
² Innovation Center for the Study of Pancreatic Diseases of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China.
³ Zhejiang Clinical Research Center of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Diseases, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Pancreatic Disease of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China.

Abstract

Although many approaches have been developed for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that has both high incidence and high mortality especially in Asian countries, the prognosis of HCC patients is still dismal. Immunotherapy, particularly immune checkpoint inhibitors show encouraging efficacy and have already been widely applied in clinic. However, in contrast to traditional therapies, immunotherapy brings many challenges when using in a real world, including biomarker discovery, response evaluation, adverse event treatment, etc. In this review, we proposed some important and intractable issues in current clinical practice regarding the strategy of immune checkpoint blockade, collected current evidence, and discuss the critical challenges and possible approaches to a bright future.

Keywords: adjuvant therapy; biomarker; immune checkpoint inhibitor; liver cancer; response evaluation.

Publication types

Review