Progress in transcriptomic molecular subtyping of hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most malignant tumors in the world. The incidence and mortality rates of HCC are among the highest in malignant tumors. Although advances in the developing of clinical staging system have led to significant improvement in the survival of HCC patients, the 5-year survival rates are still very poor. Advances in genome sequencing technology are now supporting a breadth of cancer genome characterization studies and help scientists to understand the heterogeneity of HCC tumors and the molecular mechanisms of its occurrence and progression. In the past 20 years, scientists have proposed a number of transcriptomic HCC molecular subtypes that are significantly associated with pathological features, and have an in-depth exploration of their biological properties and molecular characteristics. Thus, we suppose that integrated transcriptomic HCC subtypes into traditional clinical staging systems will greatly improve molecular classification and prediction of outcomes in HCC and enable personalized HCC treatment.