Inflammation-related prognostic markers in resected hepatocellular carcinoma

Front Oncol. 2023 Dec 7:13:1267870. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1267870. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma is usually detected late and therapeutic options are unsatisfactory. Despite marked progress in patient care, HCC remains among the deadliest cancers world-wide. While surgical resection remains a key option for early-stage HCC, the 5-year survival rates after surgical resection are limited. One reason for limited outcomes is the lack of reliable prognostic biomarkers to predict HCC recurrence. HCC prognosis has been shown to correlate with different systemic and pathological markers which are associated with patient survival and HCC recurrence. Liver inflammatory processes offer a large variety of systemic and pathological markers which may be exploited to improve the reliability of prognosis and decision making of liver surgeons and hepatologists. The following review aims to dissect the potential tools, targets and prognostic meaning of inflammatory markers in patients with resectable HCC. We analyze changes in circulant cellular populations and assess inflammatory biomarkers as a surrogate of impaired outcomes and provide an overview on predictive gene expression signatures including inflammatory transcriptional patterns, which are representative of poor survival in these patients.

Keywords: HCC; biomarkers; genetic signatures; inflammation; patient outcome.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors acknowledge research support by the European Union (ERC-AdG-2020-FIBCAN #101021417 to TB, HORIZON-HLTH-2021-DISEASE-04-07 D-SOLVE #101057917 to TB. and JL), the Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le Sida et les hépatites virales (ANRS ECTZ103701.