Anti-angiogenesis in hepatocellular carcinoma treatment : current evidence and future perspectives

  • Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the most common cancer diseases worldwide. Arterial hypervascularisation is an essential step for HCC tumorigenesis and can be targeted by transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). This interventional method is the standard treatment for patients with intermediate stage HCC, but is also applied as “bridging” therapy for patients awaiting liver transplantation in many centers worldwide. Usually the devascularization effect induced by TACE is transient, consequently resulting in repeated cycles of TACE every 4-8 wk. Despite documented survival benefits, TACE can also induce the up-regulation of proangiogenic and growth factors, which might contribute to accelerated progression in patients with incomplete response. In 2007, sorafenib, a multi-tyrosine kinase and angiogenesis inhibitor, was approved as the first systemic treatment for advanced stage HCC. Other active targeted compounds, either inhibitors of angiogenesis and/or growth factors, are currently being investigated in numerous clinical trials. To overcome revascularisation or tumor progression under TACE treatment it seems therefore attractive to combine TACE with systemic targeted agents, which might theoretically block the effects of proangiogenic and growth factors. Over the last 12 mo, several retrospecretrospective or prospective cohort studies combining TACE and sorafenib have been published. Nevertheless, robust results of the efficacy and tolerability of such combination strategies as proven by randomized, controlled trials are awaited in the next two years.

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Metadaten
Author:Martin-Walter WelkerGND, Jörg TrojanORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-305883
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v17.i26.3075
ISSN:1007-9327
ISSN:2219-2840
Parent Title (English):World journal of gastroenterology : WJG
Publisher:WJG Press
Place of publication:Beijing
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2013
Date of first Publication:2011/07/14
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2013/07/01
Tag:Antiangiogenesis; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Sorafenib; Transarterial chemoembolization
Volume:17
Issue:26
Page Number:8
First Page:3075
Last Page:3081
Note:
© 2011 Baishideng. Articles published by this Open-Access journal are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license.
HeBIS-PPN:347476627
Institutes:Medizin / Medizin
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell 3.0