目前世界上最重要的健康问题之一是癌症。世界卫生组织（WHO）报告称，每年导致890万人死亡。恶性肿瘤和不受调控的细胞增殖是恶性肿瘤的特征，它们还可能侵袭附近的身体部位。最近的研究显示，肝细胞癌是全球第三大导致癌症相关死亡的原因，也是第五种最常见的癌症。患有肝病以及慢性乙型和丙型肝炎的患者更容易患上肝细胞癌（HCC）。物理屏障，包括RES吸收、整形作用和首过药物代谢，使药物治疗更具挑战性。传统癌症治疗方法对多药耐药（MDR）、高清除率和其他副作用反应不佳，因为药物分布不均和药物浓度不足达到癌细胞。为了改善药物治疗和靶向效果，必须开发针对肝损伤细胞的创新靶向药物分子。使用与药物分子或纳米载体结合的靶向配体是创新的靶向技术的基础。在与治疗方法结合后，用于靶向肝细胞癌细胞的配体包括无酸性糖蛋白、半乳糖苷、乳果糖酸、甘露糖-6-磷酸、PDGF、抗体和适配体。Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers；如有任何疑问，请发送电子邮件至epub@benthamscience.net。

One of the most important health problems in the world today is cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that it results in 8.9 million deaths annually. Malignant tumours and unregulated cell proliferation are features of malignant neoplasms, which can also invade nearby body regions. Hepatocellular carcinoma is the third most prevalent cause of cancer-related death worldwide and the fifth most common kind of cancer, according to a recent analysis. Patients with liver disease as well as chronic hepatitis B and C are more likely to develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Physical barriers, including RES absorption, opsonization, and first-pass drug metabolism, make drug therapy more challenging. Conventional cancer therapy procedures have a low response rate or may continue to be unsuccessful due to multi-drug resistance (MDR), high clearance rates, and other side effects because of suboptimal drug distribution and insufficient drug concentration reaching cancer cells. Innovative target drug molecules that are tailored to the injured liver cells must be developed in order to improve medication administration and drug targeting. The use of targeting ligands that have been joined to drug molecules or nanocarriers forms the basis of innovative targeting techniques. After being conjugated with the treatment method, ligands for targeting hepatocellular carcinoma cells included asialoglycoprotein, galactoside, lactobionic acid, mannose-6-phosphate, PDGF, antibodies, and aptamers.Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.