Potential of immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide with limited therapeutic options. Since HCC has been shown to be immunogenic, T cell-based immunotherapy is considered a promising treatment. In this review, we summarize current knowledge of T cell responses against tumour-associated antigens, as well as the mechanisms underlying the poor quality of these responses in patients with HCC. Insights into these important aspects of HCC immunology are crucial for the further development of novel immunotherapies.

Effect of liver regeneration on malignant hepatic tumors

“…Moreover, new insights into immunogenic cancer cell death indicate that certain types of chemotherapy and radiotherapy can be associated with immune responses that are of clinical significance [114,115] . New techniques are being investigated in human subjects and animal models, including the adoptive transfer of viral antigen-specific T cells, cytokines injections, autologous tumor pulsed dendritic cells, the use of AFP-derived peptides and adenoviruses, and immunization with tumor cells fused with antigen-presenting cells [116][117][118] . The mechanisms that enable liver cancer to escape attack by the immune system still remain unclear.…”

T cell immunotherapy in hepatitis B Virus related hepatocellular carcinoma

“…Immunotherapy has shown promising outcomes in different hematologic malignancies, demonstrating its high potential for curative HCC therapy [12,13] . Major progress have been made in the development of immunotherapy approaches that attempts to rejuvenate and/or induce anti-tumour T cell responses in the HCC microenvironment, like immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) [14] .…”

“…Major progress have been made in the development of immunotherapy approaches that attempts to rejuvenate and/or induce anti-tumour T cell responses in the HCC microenvironment, like immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) [14] . However, this approach requires a pre-existing inflammatory tumour microenvironment with significant immune cell infiltration, the expression of immune checkpoints on tumour cells, and/or an existing anti-tumour immune response, in order to exert an anti-tumour effect [13,[15][16][17][18] . With the intra-and inter-HCC patient tumour heterogeneity, it would be difficult to expect the mechanism of action for the therapy to be intact for all tumour nodules, especially in metastatic nodules that develop in different anatomical environments [19] .…”

Immunotherapy and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…Diverse work has shown that CD8+ T-cells can recognize various HCC-associated tumor antigens presented by MHC molecules [6]. The expression of Alpha Fetoprotein (AFP), which normally stops after birth, is found in up to 80% of HCC.…”