The relationship between the efficacy of thermal ablation and inflammatory response and immune status in early hepatocellular carcinoma and the progress of postoperative adjuvant therapy

• Published in: International immunopharmacology 2023-06, Vol.119, p.110228-110228, Article 110228
• Main Authors: Chen, Shuanggang, Shen, Binyan, Wu, Ying, Shen, Lujun, Qi, Han, Cao, Fei, Huang, Tao, Tan, Hongtong, Wen, Chunyong, Fan, Weijun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adjuvant therapy; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - pathology; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - surgery; Combined Modality Therapy; Early hepatocellular carcinoma; Heterogeneity; Humans; Immunity; Inflammation; Liver Neoplasms - pathology; Liver Neoplasms - surgery; Prognosis; Thermal ablation; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 1567-5769; 1878-1705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2023.110228

•We elaborated briefly the mechanism of high inflammatory response and poor immune status in the poor prognosis after radical thermal ablation of early hepatocellular carcinoma.•Adjuvant agents after radical thermal ablation in early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma patients with high inflammatory response and poor immune status are briefly summarized, which provides strategic support to further improve the efficacy of early hepatocellular carcinoma after radical thermal ablation. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly heterogeneous disease. Thermal ablation has the advantages of being equivalent to surgical resection, minimally invasive, low cost and significantly reducing hospital stay. Therefore, it is recommended as one of the first-line radical treatment for early HCC. However, with the deepening of research on early HCC, more and more studies have found that not all patients with early HCC can obtain similar efficacy after radical thermal ablation, which may be related to the heterogeneity of HCC. Previous studies have shown that inflammation and immunity play an extremely important role in the prognostic heterogeneity of patients with HCC. Therefore, the inflammatory response and immune status of patients may be closely related to the efficacy of early HCC after curative thermal ablation. This article elaborates the mechanism of high inflammatory response and poor immune status in the poor prognosis after radical thermal ablation of early HCC, and clarifies the population who may benefit from adjuvant therapy after radical thermal ablation in patients with early HCC, which provides a new idea for the precise adjuvant treatment after radical ablation of early HCC in the future.