Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as the leading liver cancer occurs predominantly in the patients with liver cirrhosis, playing role as the second cause of death from the cancer. One of the widely used therapies in the HCC is molecular targeted drugs. The proliferation of HCC can be slowed down in S/G2/M phases of the cell cycle and the cells can be sensitized to apoptotic stimuli by Sorafenib whose targets are VEGFRs, PDGFRs and RAF kinases. Angiogenesis and vascular permeability might be influenced by Sorafenib and other VEGF inhibitors in HCC.

The search strategy was implemented on PubMed database in English using the keywords of Hepatocellular carcinoma, Anti-EGFR Therapies, SorafenibandDrug resistance.

The findings showed inconsistency for the sorafenib effectiveness in the patients with HCC using all the other antiangiogenic agents that were evaluated in the randomized Phase III trials. One of the possible mechanisms of action for the sorafenib is its anti-vascular effect. In liver-cancer cell lines, the sorafenib had preclinically antiproliferative activity and decreased tumor angiogenesis and tumor-cell signaling and elevated tumor-cell apoptosis in a mouse xenograft model of human HCC.

Inhibited VEGF signaling pathway might be an effective strategy in treating the patients with HCC. It is unclear the precise mechanism of action of sorafenib therapy in the patients with HCC. The definition of prognostic biomarkers providers targeted therapy for the sensitivity of Sorafenib to HCC given the important changes in the clinical advantages in the patients.