Onkológia 4/2010

Current situation in the systemic therapy of liver tumours

Worldwide, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the third most common cause of cancer-relateddeath. Unresectable or metastatic HCC carries a poor prognosis and systemic therapy with cytotoxic agents provides marginal benefit. A majority of HCC patients (> 80 %) presents with advanced or unresectable disease. Even for those with resected disease, the recurrence rate can be as high as 50 % at 2 years. Because of the poor track record of systemic therapy in HCC, there has been a sense of nihilism for this disease in the oncology community for decades. However, with the arrival of newly developed molecularly targeted agents and the success of some of these agents (Sorafenib) there has recently been renewed interest in developing systemic therapy for HCC.

Keywords: hepatocelullar carcinoma, chemotherapy, sorafenib.