Difficulties and advance of CAR-T therapy in hepatocellular carcinoma

Primary hepatic carcinoma belongs to the malignant tumors that appear most commonly in the world, among which hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for 85%-90%, with high frequency and mortality. At present, the main treatment for liver cancer still focuses on surgical resection or transplantation. However, due to its poor recovery and easy recurrence and metastasis, it is necessary to find other adjuvant therapies based on surgical treatment to try to cure primary liver cancer. Chimeric Antigen Receptor - T cell (CAR-T) therapy is emerging immunotherapy in recent years. Constructing specific CAR structures in vitro, then directing T cells to recognize antigen in vivo, while a variety of effectors can be released to kill tumor cells through immune action. Among them, CAR-T therapy has achieved great success dealing with hematological tumors. Nevertheless, because of the heterogeneity and tumor microenvironment (TME) of solid tumors, it’s difficult to use CAR-T therapy effectively in clinical treatment. Therefore, here we summarize the problems CAR-T therapy facing in curing HCC, as well as some solutions and breakthroughs, hoping to play a certain role in further applying CAR-T therapy in HCC clinical treatment in the future.