Current approaches in the transcriptional-guided gene therapy of human hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the predominant histological subtype of primary human liver cancer, is one of the most prevalent cancer types worldwide, accounting for an estimated 500,000 deaths annually. The clinical management of HCC is challenging on many counts. HCC is a phenotypically and genetically heterogeneous polyclonal disease and is resistant to most conventional chemotherapy. Early manifestation of HCC is characteristically silent and slow growing with few symptoms, and HCC is therefore often diagnosed at an advanced stage, when potentially curative surgical or local ablative therapy is not feasible. Therefore, clinically validated biomarkers that could confer pathological and functional changes associated with the formation and progression of HCC are urgently needed to provide important molecular basis for the development of novel treatments. Recently, comprehensive molecular gene profiling of primary liver cancer tissues has been employed to identify specific genes that are linked to hepatocarcinogenesis. Current attempts to translate molecular knowledge to design strategies for the experimental gene therapy of HCC are reviewed.