TY - JOUR
T1 - Challenges in cancer vaccine development for hepatocellular carcinoma
AU - Buonaguro, Luigi
AU - Petrizzo, Annacarmen
AU - Tagliamonte, Maria
AU - Tornesello, Maria Lina
AU - Buonaguro, Franco M.
PY - 2013/10
Y1 - 2013/10
N2 - Summary Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common liver malignancy, representing the third and fifth leading cause of death from cancer worldwide in men and women, respectively. The main risk factor for the development of HCC is the hepatitis B and C virus (HBV and HCV) infection; non-viral causes (e.g., alcoholism and aflatoxin) are additional risk factors. HCC prognosis is generally poor because of the low effectiveness of available treatments and the overall 5-year survival rate is approximately 5-6%. In this framework, immunotherapeutic interventions, including cancer vaccines, may represent a novel and effective therapeutic tool. However, only few immunotherapy trials for HCC have been conducted so far with contrasting results, suggesting that improvements in several aspects of the immunotherapy approaches need to be implemented. In particular, identification of novel specific tumor antigens and evaluation of most advanced combinatorial strategies could result in unprecedented clinical outcomes with great beneficial effect for HCC patients. The state of the art in immunotherapy strategies for HCC and future perspectives are reported in the present review.
AB - Summary Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common liver malignancy, representing the third and fifth leading cause of death from cancer worldwide in men and women, respectively. The main risk factor for the development of HCC is the hepatitis B and C virus (HBV and HCV) infection; non-viral causes (e.g., alcoholism and aflatoxin) are additional risk factors. HCC prognosis is generally poor because of the low effectiveness of available treatments and the overall 5-year survival rate is approximately 5-6%. In this framework, immunotherapeutic interventions, including cancer vaccines, may represent a novel and effective therapeutic tool. However, only few immunotherapy trials for HCC have been conducted so far with contrasting results, suggesting that improvements in several aspects of the immunotherapy approaches need to be implemented. In particular, identification of novel specific tumor antigens and evaluation of most advanced combinatorial strategies could result in unprecedented clinical outcomes with great beneficial effect for HCC patients. The state of the art in immunotherapy strategies for HCC and future perspectives are reported in the present review.
KW - Active immunotherapy
KW - Cancer vaccine
KW - Hepatocellular carcinoma
KW - Metronomic chemotherapy
KW - Tumor antigen discovery
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jhep.2013.05.031
DO - 10.1016/j.jhep.2013.05.031
M3 - Article
C2 - 23714157
AN - SCOPUS:84884412245
VL - 59
SP - 897
EP - 903
JO - Journal of Hepatology
JF - Journal of Hepatology
SN - 0168-8278
IS - 4
ER -