Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 7, 2019; 25(25): 3151-3167
Published online Jul 7, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i25.3151
Hepatocellular carcinoma: Mechanisms of progression and immunotherapy
Yu Jiang, Qiu-Ju Han, Jian Zhang
Yu Jiang, Qiu-Ju Han, Jian Zhang, Institute of Immunopharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Jiang Y and Zhang J designed the structure of this review; Jiang Y contributed literature review, designed illustrations and tables and wrote the manuscript; Jiang Y, Han QJ and Zhang J revised the paper; All authors approved the final version.
Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81172789, 30972692 and 81373222; National Basic Research Program of China 973 Program, No. 2013CB531503; and National Mega Project on Major Infectious Diseases Prevention and Treatment, No. 2012ZX10002006.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflict of interest.
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/
Corresponding author: Jian Zhang, PhD, Professor, Institute of Immunopharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, Shandong Province, China. zhangj65@sdu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-531-88383781 Fax: +86-531-88383782
Received: March 6, 2019
Peer-review started: March 6, 2019
First decision: April 4, 2019
Revised: April 28, 2019
Accepted: May 18, 2019
Article in press: May 18, 2019
Published online: July 7, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: Among all primary liver cancers, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common and accounts for 90% of cases. Mechanisms related to HCC progression and treatment strategies have been extensively reported. In this paper, we review the molecular mechanisms involved in HCC progression and the latest advancements in immunotherapy by combining the research progress and results from our laboratory in recent years.