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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Apr 15, 2021; 13(4): 197-215
Published online Apr 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i4.197
Early diagnosis and therapeutic strategies for hepatocellular carcinoma: From bench to bedside
Ming-Cheng Guan, Ming-Da Wang, Si-Yu Liu, Wei Ouyang, Lei Liang, Timothy M Pawlik, Qiu-Ran Xu, Dong-Sheng Huang, Feng Shen, Hong Zhu, Tian Yang
Ming-Cheng Guan, Wei Ouyang, Hong Zhu, Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu Province, China
Ming-Da Wang, Feng Shen, Tian Yang, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital (Navy Medical University), Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200438, China
Si-Yu Liu, Department of Laboratory, Lishui Municipal Central Hospital, Lishui 323000, Zhejiang Province, China
Lei Liang, Qiu-Ran Xu, Dong-Sheng Huang, Tian Yang, Department of Hepatobiliary, Pancreatic and Minimal Invasive Surgery, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital (People’s Hospital of Hangzhou Medical College), Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang Province, China
Lei Liang, Qiu-Ran Xu, Dong-Sheng Huang, Tian Yang, Department of Hepatobiliary, Pancreatic and Minimal Invasive Surgery, Key Laboratory of Tumor Molecular Diagnosis and Individualized Medicine of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310000, Zhejiang Province, China
Timothy M Pawlik, Department of Surgery, Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH 43210, United States
Author contributions: Guan MC and Wang MD drafted the manuscript; Liu SY and Ouyang W prepared the figures and tables; Liang L and Xu QR provided input to the writing of this paper; Shen F and Pawlik TM provided critical comments; Huang DS, Zhu H, and Yang T designed the outline and coordinated the writing of the paper; Guan MC and Wang MD contributed equally to this work.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (General Program), No. 81972726.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests 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: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Tian Yang, MD, Doctor, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital (Navy Medical University), Second Military Medical University, No. 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China. yangtian6666@hotmail.com
Received: December 21, 2020
Peer-review started: December 21, 2020
First decision: January 11, 2021
Revised: January 14, 2021
Accepted: March 11, 2021
Article in press: March 11, 2021
Published online: April 15, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: Long-term survival relies upon early diagnosis and timely treatment for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this review, an update on the non-invasive early molecular detection and therapeutic strategies associated with HCC is discussed, focusing on omics-related biomarkers (e.g., proteins, metabolites, circulating tumor deoxyribonucleic acid, circulating non-coding ribonucleic acid), locoregional and systemic therapies for treating different stages of HCC, as well as potential immunotherapeutic innovations (e.g., adoptive cell transfer therapy).