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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Sep 27, 2025; 17(9): 107671
Published online Sep 27, 2025. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v17.i9.107671
Published online Sep 27, 2025. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v17.i9.107671
Targeting glypican-3 as a new frontier in liver cancer therapy
Chen-Shiou Wu, Department of Medical Research, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407219, Taiwan
Teng-Yu Lee, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407219, Taiwan
Teng-Yu Lee, School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan
Hsu-Wen Chao, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110301, Taiwan
Hsu-Wen Chao, Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110301, Taiwan
Hsu-Wen Chao, Department of Biomedical Science and Environmental Biology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807378, Taiwan
Author contributions: Wu CS wrote the original draft; Lee TY and Chao HW provided guidance and critically reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this manuscript.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hsu-Wen Chao, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Wuxing St, Xinyi District, Taipei 110301, Taiwan. chaohw3619@tmu.edu.tw
Received: March 28, 2025
Revised: May 23, 2025
Accepted: August 1, 2025
Published online: September 27, 2025
Processing time: 181 Days and 23.1 Hours
Revised: May 23, 2025
Accepted: August 1, 2025
Published online: September 27, 2025
Processing time: 181 Days and 23.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This review provides a comprehensive overview of glypican-3 (GPC3)-targeted strategies in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), including monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapies, vaccines, and photodynamic approaches. It further explores GPC3’s role in molecular imaging, radiomics, and liquid biopsy. Despite challenges in clinical translation, ongoing trials and novel combination therapies highlight the potential of GPC3-based approaches to improve treatment specificity, overcome resistance, and guide personalized therapy in HCC.