Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 14, 2016; 22(34): 7645-7659
Published online Sep 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i34.7645
Challenges of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma
Stefano Colagrande, Andrea L Inghilesi, Sami Aburas, Gian G Taliani, Cosimo Nardi, Fabio Marra
Stefano Colagrande, Cosimo Nardi, Gian Giacomo Taliani, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche Sperimentali e Cliniche, University of Florence, I-50134 Florence, Italy
Andrea L Inghilesi, Sami Aburas, Fabio Marra, Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, Centro di Ricerca Denothe, University of Florence, I-50134 Florence, Italy
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Stefano Colagrande, MD, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Sperimentali e Cliniche, Largo Brambilla 3, I-50134 Florence, Italy. stefano.colagrande@unifi.it
Telephone: +39-55-7947189 Fax: +39-55-431970
Received: March 18, 2016
Peer-review started: March 21, 2016
First decision: April 14, 2016
Revised: July 6, 2016
Accepted: August 8, 2016
Article in press: August 8, 2016
Published online: September 14, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive malignancy, which accounts for great part of all cancer deaths each year. Its management is complex, and although the surveillance performed, many patients have an advanced stage. This comprehends an heterogeneous groups with different clinical condition; sorafenib is the only approved treatment, however affected by many adverse events. No single agent or combination therapies have been shown to impact outcomes after sorafenib failure. Loco-regional therapies as TAE/TACE and TARE have also been tested and at now are under evaluation. This review will focus on patients with advanced HCC and highlights potential and limit of the therapies.