Opportunities and challenges of multidisciplinary conversion therapy in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Surgical resection is still the most important radical treatment for primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but at present, the resection rate of newly diagnosed patients with HCC is only 30%. The recurrence rate of newly diagnosed patients suitable for surgical resection within 5 years after surgery is as high as 40%~70%. Low initial resection rate and high postoperative recurrence rate are important reasons restricting the overall treatment effects of HCC in China. Under this background, effectively improving the resection rate of HCC and reducing the postoperative recurrence rate have become the key topics to improve the treatment effects of HCC. Some initially unresectable HCC patients may have access to surgery through conversion therapy. Conversion therapy, which mainly involves the combination of local, systemic, and multiple treatment strategies, offers hope for patients with advanced HCC. But there are still some patients who do not benefit from conversion therapy. So, how to improve the conversion success rate is still one of the challenges that clinicians need to solve.