Although great strides have been made in the management and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), its prognosis is still poor yielding a high mortality. Immunotherapy is recommended for treating advanced HCC, but its efficiency is hampered due to hepatic immunosuppression. Stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway, serving as a critical cytoplasmic DNA-sensing process, is reported to initiate the anti-tumor immune response, and link the innate immunity to the adaptive immune system. Radiotherapy (RT) has been well acknowledged to induce destruction and release of tumor-derived DNA into the cytoplasm, which then activates the cGAS-STING pathway. On this basis, RT can be used as a sensitizer for immunotherapy, and its combination with immunotherapy may bring in changes to the suboptimal efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy. In this review, we summarized the roles of cGAS-STING pathway in regulation of radiotherapy combined with immunotherapy for treating HCC.

中文翻译：

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cGAS-STING通路在肝细胞癌放疗联合免疫治疗中的作用

尽管肝细胞癌（HCC）的管理和治疗已取得长足进步，但其预后仍然较差，死亡率较高。免疫疗法被推荐用于治疗晚期 HCC，但由于肝脏免疫抑制，其疗效受到阻碍。据报道，干扰素基因刺激物 (STING) 途径作为关键的细胞质 DNA 传感过程，可启动抗肿瘤免疫反应，并将先天免疫与适应性免疫系统联系起来。众所周知，放射治疗 (RT) 会诱导肿瘤来源的 DNA 被破坏并释放到细胞质中，然后激活 cGAS-STING 通路。在此基础上，RT可以作为免疫治疗的增敏剂，其与免疫治疗的联合可能会改变免疫检查点抑制剂单药治疗的次优疗效。在这篇综述中，我们总结了cGAS-STING通路在调控放疗联合免疫治疗治疗HCC中的作用。