Current Perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicines and Active Ingredients in the Therapy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

J Hepatocell Carcinoma. 2022 Feb 9:9:41-56. doi: 10.2147/JHC.S346047. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading lethal tumors worldwide, and the treatment remains a great medical challenge. Surgery and chemotherapy are current standard curative methods for patients with HCC, but the prognosis is still dismal. Based on unique medical theories and rich practical experience, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been broadly employed to effectively treat HCC for a long history. Recently, systematic clinical trials have been well designed to study the efficacy of TCMs in the treatment of HCC, and the underlying antitumor mechanisms were also deeply explored. Here, we reviewed the published clinical evaluation of some commonly used TCMs in the treatment of HCC, and the related anti-HCC mechanisms through in vitro and in vivo study, promoting the modernization of TCM study in oncology for achieving a substantial reduction of HCC burden in the future.

Keywords: active ingredient; antitumor mechanism; hepatocellular carcinoma; traditional Chinese medicine; tumor therapy.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.81874436, 82074154, 81774240), Three-year Action Plan for the Development of Chinese Medicine in Shanghai (No.ZY (2018-2020)-CCCX-2003-01), Shanghai Key Clinical Specialty Construction Project (No.shslczdzk01201), The Siming Scholar from Shanghai Shuguang Hospital (SGXZ-201904), Youth Tip-top Talent program in Shanghai, Xinglin Youth Scholar from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.