Comparable and Complimentary Modalities for Treatment of Small-Sized HCC: Surgical Resection, Radiofrequency Ablation, and Microwave Ablation

A Novel Nomogram to Predict Prognosis in Elderly Early-Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients After Ablation Therapy

Purpose

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the predominant form of primary liver cancer. Early diagnosis is crucial for improving prognosis. Elderly HCC patients often have underlying liver diseases such as chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis, leading to impaired liver function and suboptimal liver reserve. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has rapidly become one of the most important methods for treating early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (EHCC) due to its advantages, including minimal trauma, short operation time, less intraoperative bleeding, quick postoperative recovery, cost-effectiveness, and few postoperative-complications. However, the prognostic model for early recurrence after local ablation in elderly EHCC patients has not been widely evaluated. We have developed a prognostic model for the recurrence of local RFA in elderly EHCC patients. This is expected to provide a new early warning system for preventing early recurrence in elderly EHCC patients, prolonging patient's life, and improving overall quality of life.

Methods

In this study, we included 661 EHCC patients who underwent local ablation, dividing them into a Primary cohort and a Validation cohort in a 7:3 ratio. We characterized the cohorts and utilized the primary cohort to develop a prognostic nomogram model for recurrence after local ablation in elderly EHCC patients. Additionally, the validation cohort was used to assess the potential of the nomogram as a non-invasive biomarker for post-ablation recurrence in EHCC.

Results

The user-friendly nomogram incorporates common clinical variables including gender, BCLC stage, tumor number, tumor size, red blood cell (RBC), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), and prothrombin time activity (PTA). The nomogram constructed using the identified seven variables exhibits robust discriminatory capabilities, favorable predictive performance, and noteworthy clinical utility.

Conclusion

We developed a user-friendly nomogram based on the BCLC stage classification, which may provide prognostic assessments for elderly EHCC patients at 1, 3, and 5 years post-RFA.

Precision targeting in hepatocellular carcinoma: Exploring ligand-receptor mediated nanotherapy

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer and poses a major challenge to global health due to its high morbidity and mortality. Conventional chemotherapy is usually targeted to patients with intermediate to advanced stages, but it is often ineffective and suffers from problems such as multidrug resistance, rapid drug clearance, nonspecific targeting, high side effects, and low drug accumulation in tumor cells. In response to these limitations, recent advances in nanoparticle-mediated targeted drug delivery technologies have emerged as breakthrough approaches for the treatment of HCC. This review focuses on recent advances in nanoparticle-based targeted drug delivery systems, with special attention to various receptors overexpressed on HCC cells. These receptors are key to enhancing the specificity and efficacy of nanoparticle delivery and represent a new paradigm for actively targeting and combating HCC. We comprehensively summarize the current understanding of these receptors, their role in nanoparticle targeting, and the impact of such targeted therapies on HCC. By gaining a deeper understanding of the receptor-mediated mechanisms of these innovative therapies, more effective and precise treatment of HCC can be achieved.

An Overview of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Treatment After Radical Resection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

According to the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) system, radical resection of early stage primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) mainly includes liver transplantation, surgical resection, and radiofrequency ablation (RFA), which yield 5-year survival rates of about 70-79%, 41.3-69.5%, and 40-70%, respectively. The tumor-free 5-year rate for HCC patients undergoing radical resection only reach up to 13.7 months, so the prevention of recurrence after radical resection of HCC is very important for the prognosis of patients. The traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) takes the approach of multitarget and overall-regulation to treat tumors, it can also independently present the "component-target-pathway" related to a particular disease, and its systematic and holistic characteristics can provide a personalized therapy based on symptoms of the patient by treating the patient as a whole. TCM as postoperative adjuvant therapy after radical resection of HCC in Barcelona Clinic liver cancer A or B stages, and the numerous clinical trials confirmed that the efficacy of TCM in the field of HCC has a significant effect, not only improving the prognosis and quality of life but also enhancing patient survival rate. However, with the characteristics of multi-target, multi-component, and multi-pathway, the specific mechanism of Chinese medicine in the treatment of diseases is still unclear. Because of the positive pharmacological activities of TCM in combating anti-tumors, the mechanism studies of TCM have demonstrated beneficial effects on the regulation of immune function, chronic inflammation, the proliferation and metastasis of liver cancer cells, autophagy, and cell signaling pathways related to liver cancer. Therefore, this article reviews the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine in reducing the recurrence rate of HCC after radical resection.

Hepatocellular Carcinoma from a Hepatologist's Perspective

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of primary liver cancer, represents a growing health challenge worldwide. The incidence of HCC is rising, which, in turn, has led to a corresponding increase in the associated number of deaths. HCC will become the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States by 2030. HCC usually develops in the setting of chronic liver disease. Individuals at increased risk of HCC are recommended to undergo surveillance with ultrasound every 6 months along with serum α-fetoprotein testing. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are considered alternatives based on specific patient factors. Lesions suspicious for HCC are recommended to undergo a diagnostic testing, which includes contrast-enhanced multiphase CT or MRI and liver biopsy when findings are indeterminate. The Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer prognosis and treatment strategy is the most used assessment for patients with HCC ( Fig. 2 ). Curative therapies include resection, liver transplantation, and ablation. Locoregional therapies, such as transarterial chemoembolization and radioembolization, can be used for patients with intermediate-stage HCC. For patients with advanced-stage HCC, systemic therapy is often used. This review aims to provide an overview of HCC from a hepatologist's perspective, including epidemiology, screening, surveillance, diagnosis, and management.