Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 7, 2023; 29(17): 2571-2599
Published online May 7, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i17.2571
Current and novel approaches in the pharmacological treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma
Fernanda Villarruel-Melquiades, María Eugenia Mendoza-Garrido, Claudia M García-Cuellar, Yesennia Sánchez-Pérez, Julio Isael Pérez-Carreón, Javier Camacho
Fernanda Villarruel-Melquiades, Javier Camacho, Departamento de Farmacología, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV-IPN), Mexico City 07360, Mexico
María Eugenia Mendoza-Garrido, Departamento de Fisiología, Biofísica y Neurociencias, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV-IPN), Mexico City 07360, Mexico
Claudia M García-Cuellar, Yesennia Sánchez-Pérez, Subdirección de Investigación Básica, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología (INCan), Mexico City 14080, Mexico
Julio Isael Pérez-Carreón, Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica, Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica (INMEGEN), Mexico City 14610, Mexico
Author contributions: Villarruel-Melquiades F and Camacho J wrote the paper and made substantial contributions to conception of the manuscript; Mendoza-Garrido ME, García-Cuellar CM, Sánchez-Pérez Y and Pérez-Carreón JI made critical revisions related to important intellectual content of the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final version of the article to be published.
Supported by CONACyT Fellowship (FV-M), No. 787907.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Javier Camacho, BSc, MSc, PhD, Research Scientist, Departamento de Farmacología, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV-IPN), Avenida Instituto Politécnico Nacional 2508, Mexico City 07360, Mexico. fcamacho@cinvestav.mx
Received: December 27, 2022
Peer-review started: December 27, 2022
First decision: January 11, 2023
Revised: January 19, 2023
Accepted: April 11, 2023
Article in press: April 11, 2023
Published online: May 7, 2023
Core Tip

Core Tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most lethal malignant tumours worldwide. Unfortunately, most HCC cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, and "curative" options are not suggested for these patients. The best option is to start with drug therapy, with sorafenib and lenvatinib as the first-choice drugs. However, most patients do not respond to these treatments; therefore, new therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. Here, we review current potential and novel pharmacological approaches, including immunotherapy, drug combination, and drug repositioning, that should help to improve the prognosis of HCC patients.