Does chemotherapy prevent HCV-related hepatocellular carcinoma? Pros

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, which seems to have spread worldwide recently, is now the leading cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development in various geographic areas. The primary prevention of HCV-related HCC includes strategies for the prevention of HCV infection and those for viral eradication. Even after HCC development, short-term prognosis of patients has been much improved recently due to advances in early diagnosis and treatment. However, long-term prognosis is as yet far from satisfactory due to frequent recurrence of HCC even after apparently curative treatment, either local ablation or surgical resection. At least theoretically, strategies similar to those of primary prevention may be applicable to HCC recurrence. In this review, we summarized the reported favorable effects of chemotherapy on primary and tertiary prevention of HCC.