Gene therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for over 90% of all primary liver tumors and leads to nearly 1 million deaths annually. Only a very small fraction of patients with HCC qualifies for surgical resection. Far fewer patients with HCC undergo liver transplantation, although it can produce excellent outcomes in early HCC. Since there is no effective therapy for most cases of advanced HCC, new therapeutic procedures are urgently needed. Gene therapy has emerged in the last decade as a new approach to the treatment of any disease including cancer. Gene therapy offers a new approach to treatment of HCC. Transfer of genes encoding tumor suppressor genes, suicide genes, and immunostimulatory cytokines has been used with remarkable success to eliminate HCC in animals. However, clinical trials in patients using this strategy had limited efficacy. We review have what gene therapy has achieved in the field of HCC and discuss what is needed for sound progress in the field.