Systemic treatment of liver cancer: Current status and future perspectives

Table 4 Correlation between targets and pathogenesis of the disease

Target category	Related signaling pathways	Pathogenesis of the disease	Representative drugs
Immune checkpoints	PD-1/PD-L1	Tumor cells evade immune surveillance and inhibit the activity of T cells through the overexpression of PD-L1	Pembrolizumab, nivolumab
Angiogenesis targets	VEGF/VEGFR2	Abnormal proliferation of tumor blood vessels promotes nutrient supply and metastasis	Ramucirumab
Synergistic treatment targets	CTLA-4 (combined with PD-1 inhibitors)	Dual inhibition of immune checkpoints enhances T cell activation and tumor infiltration	Nivolumab + ipilimumab

PD-1: Programmed cell death protein 1; PD-L1: Programmed death-ligand 1; VEGF: Vascular endothelial growth factor; VEGFR2: Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2; CTLA-4: Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4.