Integrating Genomics into Clinical Practice in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: The Challenges Ahead

The incidence and mortality related to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) continue to increase in the United States, with most patients presenting at advanced stages where curative therapy and long-term survival is unlikely. Fortunately, significant progress has been made in identifying the landscape of HCC mutations due to advances in whole genome expression profiling. Drug development has also evolved in recent years with multiple first- and second-line systemic chemotherapy agents approved for HCC for the first time in over a decade. However, despite advances in molecular profiling, mutations that were identified at the highest frequency were not amenable to drug development, and curative therapy for advanced HCC remains elusive. This review focuses on the current understanding of HCC genomics and the limitations of translating the current HCC molecular profiling into clinical practice and examines the effectiveness and benefits of approved systemic therapies for advanced HCC.