Current frontline approaches in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma: the evolving role of immunotherapy

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major cause of cancer-associated mortality worldwide and is expected to rise. Patients with early-stage disease may have a good prognosis with a 5-year survival rate of greater than 70%. However, the majority of patients are diagnosed with late-stage disease with a dismal overall survival rate of less than 16%. Therefore, there is a great need for advances in the treatment of advanced HCC, which for approximately the past decade, has been sorafenib. Immunotherapy is an evolving cancer treatment and has shown promise in treating patients with advanced HCC. In this review, we discuss the current standard of care for advanced HCC and then discuss the evolving role of immunotherapies.