Advances in mechanisms of immunity enhancement induced by thermal ablation therapy in hepatocellular carcinoma

Image-guided tumor thermal ablation plays a key role in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma. Thermal ablation for hepatic tumors not only generates directly killing effect on liver tumors, but also improves the level of anti-tumor immunity of the host. Thermal ablation potentially affects the anti-tumor immunity in the following ways: (1) causing necrosis that is a source for intracellular antigens, and also inducing local inflammation, which further stimulates the antigen-presenting cells; (2) removing the tumor burden; (3) undergoing the process of heat shock in surviving tissue, leading to increase in the expression of heat shock proteins; (4) activating and enhancing tumor-specific T-cell responses. This review discusses these possible mechanisms.