Novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies based on PANoptosis for hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a highly aggressive liver cancer, poses a large medical care burden worldwide. The prognosis of patients with HCC is poor, owing to recurrence and metastasis after common treatment methods. Therefore, identifying new targets to eliminate HCC cells is critical for treatment of HCC without recurrence. PANoptosis, a novel inflammatory cell death pathway, has become an intensively investigated area in recent years. The concept of PANoptosis has brought new hope for HCC therapy, given recent evidence implicating this form of programmed cell death in cancer progression, prognosis, and resistance to chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Despite increasing reviews describing the role of PANoptosis in various cancer types, to our knowledge, no systematic review has examined the implications of PANoptosis in HCC. Therefore, we sought to provide the first systematic review of the regulatory mechanisms and therapeutic potential of PANoptosis in HCC. We summarize recent progress in exploration of the role of PANoptosis in HCC, particularly regulation of the HCC tumor microenvironment by PANoptosis. Finally, we highlight the potential of PANoptosis-based diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for HCC.