Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks the third most lethal cancer worldwide, and the incidence is
continuously rising. HCC is resistant to conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy, thus systemic
chemotherapy is not an ideal option for patients with advanced HCC. With recent advances in the knowledge of
hepatocarcinogenesis, there has been encouraging development in the systemic therapy for advanced HCC,
particularly in the molecular targeted therapy of advanced HCC. Sorafenib, a multikinase inhibitor, has showed
survival benefits in patients with advanced HCC. This advancement represents a breakthrough in the treatment of
HCC. Bevacizumab, a molecule that targets the anti-angiogenic pathway and the Raf/mitogen-activated protein
kinase pathways has also showed initial encouraging activity in treating advanced HCC. Currently, Sorafenib is
the only agent that has been approved by FDA as a targeted therapy for patients with advanced HCC. Future
progress seems likely to depend on using controlled clinical trials to explore the optimized synergistic treatment
strategies, combined targeted therapy with surgical resection, liver transplantation, radiofrequency ablation and
transcatheter arterial chemoembolization.
Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, molecular targeted therapy, Bevacizumab, Sorafenib.
