Guerra Pietro, Martini Andrea, Pontisso Patrizia, Angeli Paolo
Unit of Internal Medicine and Hepatology (UIMH), Department of Medicine (DIMED), University of Padova, 35122 Padova, Italy.
Cancers (Basel). 2023 Jul 15;15(14):3629. doi: 10.3390/cancers15143629.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common and aggressive cancer with a high mortality rate. The incidence of HCC is increasing worldwide, and the lack of effective screening programs often results in delayed diagnosis, making it a challenging disease to manage. Immunotherapy has emerged as a promising treatment option for different kinds of cancers, with the potential to stimulate the immune system to target cancer cells. However, the current immunotherapeutic approaches for HCC have shown limited efficacy. Since HCC arises within a complex tumour microenvironment (TME) characterized by the presence of various immune and stromal cell types, the understanding of this interaction is crucial for the identification of effective therapy. In this review, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of the TME of HCC and the immune cells involved in anti-tumour responses, including the identification of new possible targets for immunotherapy. We illustrate a possible classification of HCC based on the tumour immune infiltration and give evidence about the role of SerpinB3, a serine protease inhibitor involved in the regulation of the immune response in different cancers.
肝细胞癌（HCC）是一种常见且侵袭性强、死亡率高的癌症。HCC的发病率在全球范围内呈上升趋势，且缺乏有效的筛查项目常常导致诊断延迟，使其成为一种难以管理的疾病。免疫疗法已成为针对各类癌症的一种有前景的治疗选择，具有刺激免疫系统靶向癌细胞的潜力。然而，目前用于HCC的免疫治疗方法疗效有限。由于HCC产生于一个复杂的肿瘤微环境（TME）中，其特征是存在各种免疫和基质细胞类型，因此了解这种相互作用对于确定有效的治疗方法至关重要。在本综述中，我们重点介绍了我们对HCC的TME以及参与抗肿瘤反应的免疫细胞的最新认识进展，包括确定免疫治疗的新潜在靶点。我们阐述了基于肿瘤免疫浸润的HCC可能的分类，并提供了丝氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂SerpinB3在不同癌症免疫反应调节中的作用的证据。
