Emilio Bajetta, Giuseppe Procopio, Andrea Colombo, Valentina Guadalupi, Elena Verzoni, Filippo Pietrantonio, Sara Pusceddu, Mariangela Manzoni, Arpine Gevorgyan and Roberto Buzzoni

Medical Oncology Unit 2, Fondazione IRCCS “Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori” of Milan, Italy.

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common malignancy worldwide with approximately 500,000 new cases per year, ranking as the third cause of cancer deaths. Until the very recent past no systemic therapy was available for patients with advanced HCC. However, advances achieved in the understanding of the molecular cancer biology and the subsequent introduction of molecularly targeted agents have disclosed promising and interesting possibilities for the treatment of this highly vascularized tumor in which the inhibition of angiogenesis is likely to represent the main potential therapeutic target. In this regard, sorafenib, an oral multikinase inhibitor endowed with significant activity against several tyrosine-kinase receptors involved in blood vessel development, has shown to be very active in the treatment of advanced HCC. This review makes a survey of pharmacology, mode of action, pharmacokinetics, clinical value and safety of sorafenib when employed in the treatment of advanced HCC.