Published online Jul 28, 2017. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v9.i21.907
Peer-review started: April 12, 2017
First decision: May 19, 2017
Revised: June 13, 2017
Accepted: June 30, 2017
Article in press: July 3, 2017
Published online: July 28, 2017
Processing time: 104 Days and 9.7 Hours
Core tip: The aim of this review is to make a point on chemotherapeutic options for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at advanced stage, the most frequent stage of presentation of this neoplasia, still characterized by an important mortality rate. By now, sorafenib is the only standard treatment, but other options were recently studied and will be soon available for clinicians and patients affected by HCC. The review can be divided in four sections: The first one regards molecular target therapy and are described sorafenib, its open issues, but also other drugs with similar targets that have been evaluated for treatment of HCC. The second and the third parts regard cytotoxic drugs and immunotherapy, respectively, which were evaluated in recent years as possible alternatives or adjuvant to Sorafenib. In the last part of the review, future perspectives are described, in particular for what concerns resistance mechanism of the neoplasia, delivery methods or biological enhancers for drugs already in use, new drugs that will be probably evaluated and molecular targets that could soon become eligible for target therapy hopefully leading to the development of personalized therapy.