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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 28, 2015; 21(28): 8478-8491
Published online Jul 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i28.8478
Published online Jul 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i28.8478
Current and future treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma
Alexander Schlachterman, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL 32608, United States
Willie W Craft Jr, Department of Hospital Medicine, Upper Valley Medical Center, Troy, OH 45373, United States
Eric Hilgenfeldt, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL 32608, United States
Avir Mitra, Department of Internal Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19102, United States
Roniel Cabrera, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL 32608, United States
Author contributions: Cabrera R was responsible for project design; Craft Jr WW, Hilgenfeldt E, Mitra A and Schlachterman A contributed equally to research, data analysis and writing of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no financial support from any source in this study.
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 and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Willie W Craft Jr, Assistant Director of Hospital Medicine, Upper Valley Medical Center, 3130 N County Rd 25A, Troy, OH 45373, United States. wcraf0@gmail.com
Telephone: +1-859-5525931
Received: December 4, 2014
Peer-review started: December 4, 2014
First decision: March 12, 2015
Revised: April 27, 2015
Accepted: June 26, 2015
Article in press: June 26, 2015
Published online: July 28, 2015
Processing time: 238 Days and 8.3 Hours
Peer-review started: December 4, 2014
First decision: March 12, 2015
Revised: April 27, 2015
Accepted: June 26, 2015
Article in press: June 26, 2015
Published online: July 28, 2015
Processing time: 238 Days and 8.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), depending on the stage, has several treatment options including surgery, radiotherapy and biological agents such as Sorafenib. For both practitioners and patients these treatment modalities all offer advantages and disadvantages over one another. The question of when to use each modality remains an active field of debate. In order to provide clarity in this regard, we review currently used treatment methods along with the relevant data supporting or refuting them. Additionally, we then discuss molecular pathways involved in HCC that could be, and in some cases already are being, exploited for potential future drug therapy.