New Organ-Specific Drug Strategies Interfering in Signaling Pathways: Kinase Inhibitors and Other New Developmental Drugs in HCC

Despite the advancements in diagnosis and therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that currently permit to treat with tailored strategies the disease in early stages, for intermediate and advanced stages the therapeutic options are far from optimal. In recent years, new targets have been searched by exploring the molecular pathways involved in hepatocarcinogenesis, leading to multiple trials on new agents interfering in these mechanisms. In this article we revised the principal agents that raised major interest, from the one already established as gold standard for advanced HCC (sorafenib) to the new molecules still in preclinical or early clinical studies. The extensive investigation on the field will identify the best agents and the subsets of patients that will benefit most from their application.