Abstrait

Personalized medicine in hepatocellular carcinoma: rationale and clinical data

Maria Pipa-Muniz1, Maria Varela, Luisa Gonzalez-Dieguez,Manuel Rodguez

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver tumor. Its incidence is increasing in the West due to the expansion of hepatitis C virus infection and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; globally the most important cause of HCC is chronic infection by hepatitis B virus. Due to the surveillance policy, HCC diagnosis at an early stage is increasing. Liver transplantation, hepatic resection, percutaneous ablation and transarterial chemoembolization have emerged as effective therapies with both curative and palliative intention. In 2008, a seminal paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in which Llovet and collaborators showed that sorafenib prolongs survival in the advanced stage of disease. This drug, an oral multikinase inhibitor, indicated the beginning of a new era in which the molecular classification of tumors and personalized treatments will be the main challenge.