Klaus Hoeflich on Treatment Challenges With Liver Cancer

Klaus Hoeflich, PhD, director of Biology, Blueprint Medicines, discusses diagnosis of liver cancer as well as the treatment challenges associated with the disease during an interview at the 10th Annual Conference of the International Liver Cancer Association in Vancouver, Canada.

Liver cancer treatment is evolving rapidly, Hoeflich explains. Transplantation and surgery are treatment options for patients whose disease is localized; however, when it has progressed but is still localized to the liver, embolization and other ablative approaches are appropriate choices for patients.

However, systemic treatments—necessary for metastatic disease—is missing from the landscape, he adds. Sorafenib (Nexavar), while widely available, is not well tolerated and has minimal benefit. With the advent of genomic profiling, researchers are discovering new targets such as FGFR4, which could be explored in clinical trials and hopefully lead to more effective treatment options, says Hoeflich.

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