Immunotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma

The systemic treatment of HCC was based exclusively on sorafenib near 10 years. In the past 2-3 years some new molecules demostrated their effectivites in phase III clinical trials. So the immuncheckpoint-inhibitors (ICI) demands their place in systemic treatment of HCC. Nivolumab and pembrolizumab are recommended already in second line in NCCN and ESMO clinical guidelines. Nivolumab demostrated his effectivity against the standard treatment sorafenib in a phase III clinical trial, although the results were not signifi cant. However, the combination treatment of atezolizumab and bevacizumab seems better than sorafenib in a phase III clinical trial, so the combination is recommended already in fi rst line in the NCCN guideline. There are more clinical trials with ICIs in progress as in monotherapy as in combination therapy with other modalities.