Sorafenib tosylate (Nexavar®), a small molecule Raf kinase and VEGF receptor kinase inhibitor, is FDA approved for the treatment of patients with unresectable liver cancer. In large contolled clinical trials, sorafenib increased the life of patients with advanced liver cancer from an average of 7.9 to 10.7 months. Additionally, in patients with hepatitis C and liver cancer, sorafenib increased the life of patients from an average of 7.9 to 14.0 months. Given that hepatitis C cirrhosis is the largest cause of liver cancer in the United States, sorafenib may be particularly useful in these patients. Many studies are onging to increase the life of liver cancer patients using sorafenib with other methods of liver cancer treatment.

Sorafenib works by 1) blocking a cancer cell's machinery to divide and reproduce, and 2) blocking a cancer's ability to fool a patient's body to build a blood supply to feed the cancer. These actions combined block liver cancer growth. The figure below shows how sorafineb is believed to work.