Tumor Microenvironment in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Key Players for Immunotherapy.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a serious medical therapeutic challenge as conventional curative avenues such as surgery and chemotherapy only benefit for few patients with limited tumor burden. Immunotherapy achieves clinical progress in the treatment of this prevalent malignant disease by virtue of the development of tumor immunology; however, most patients have experienced minimal or no clinical benefit in terms of overall survival. The complexity and diversity of tumor microenvironment (TME) built by immune and stromal cell subsets has been considered to be responsible for the insufficiency of immunotherapy.

The efficacy and safety of adding on or switching to peginterferon α-2b in HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B patients with long-term entecavir treatment: a multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Background & Aims: The strategies of adding on or switching to peginterferon (PEG-IFN) improved the serological response rates in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) who had previously experienced treatment with nucleos(t)ide analogues. However, robust data on which combination strategy is more effective remain lacking.

Methods: In this multicentre, parallel, open-label, randomised, controlled trial, patients with HBeAg-positive CHB who were treated with entecavir ≥2 years, and had hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) <3000 IU/ml, HBeAg <200S/CO and HBV DNA <50 IU/ml were randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to add on PEG-IFN, switch to PEG-IFN or continue entecavir monotherapy for 48 weeks.

Bufalin inhibits hepatitis B virus-associated hepatocellular carcinoma development through androgen receptor dephosphorylation and cell cycle-related kinase degradation.

Purpose: Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which has a male predominance, lacks effective therapeutic options. Previously, the cardiac glycoside analogue bufalin has been found to inhibit HBV infection and HCC development. As yet, however, its molecular role in HBV-associated HCC has remained obscure.

Bufalin suppresses hepatocarcinogenesis by targeting β-catenin/TCF signaling via cell cycle-related kinase.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most aggressive malignant tumors, of which treatment options are limited especially in advanced stage. Bufalin, the major digoxin-like component of the traditional Chinese medicine Chansu, exhibits significant antitumor activities in hepatoma cells, but the potential mechanism is obscure. Cell cycle-related kinase (CCRK) is recently identified to be a crucial oncogenic master regulator to drive hepatocarcinogenesis.

Baseline factors associated with treatment response in patients infected with hepatitis C virus 1b by stratification of IL28B polymorphisms.

Although the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs12979860 in the IL28B gene is a better predictor of sustained virological response to treatment of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) than other baseline factors, some CHC patients with the favorable C allele cannot achieve a sustained virological response when treated with peginterferon plus ribavirin. The aim of this study was to examine baseline factors as predictors of rapid virological response (RVR) and complete early virological response (cEVR) to peginterferon alfa-2a plus ribavirin treatment in Chinese CHC patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1b, with emphasis on the difference between the rs129860 CC and CT/TT genotypes. A total of 337 treatment-naïve patients participated in this study.