Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Aug 18, 2015; 7(17): 2080-2090
Published online Aug 18, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i17.2080
Immunology of hepatocellular carcinoma
Meenakshi Sachdeva, Yogesh K Chawla, Sunil K Arora
Meenakshi Sachdeva, Sunil K Arora, Department of Immunopathology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh 160012, India
Yogesh K Chawla, Department of Hepatology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh 160012, India
Author contributions: Arora SK conceived, read, and edited the manuscript; Chawla YK provided the clinical information and read the manuscript; Sachdeva M collected the literature, and compiled and wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest related to the manuscript.
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 the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Sunil K Arora, PhD, Professor, Department of Immunopathology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Sector:12, Chandigarh 160012, India. arora.sunil@pgimer.edu.in
Telephone: +91-172-2755192 Fax: +91-172-2744401
Received: March 31, 2015
Peer-review started: April 1, 2015
First decision: April 23, 2015
Revised: May 28, 2015
Accepted: July 18, 2015
Article in press: July 22, 2015
Published online: August 18, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a heterogeneous disease caused by multiple factors, and has its immunopathogenesis complicated by the paradoxical role of various immune cells. This review provides a comprehensive insight into the immunological mechanisms that control hepatocarcinogenesis. A better and fuller understanding of the precise function of each cellular subset may open new avenues for the treatment of HCC.