Outcomes associated with the intention of loco-regional therapy prior to living donor liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma

摘要

transplantation(LT)appears to be a logical approach to reduce the risk of tumor progression and dropout in the waitlist.Living donor LT(LDLT)offers a flexible timing for transplantation providing timeframe for well preparation of transplantation.AIM To investigate outcomes in relation to the intention of pre-transplantation locoregional therapy in LDLT for HCC patients.METHODS A total of 308 consecutive patients undergoing LDLTs for HCC between August 2004 and December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed.Patients were grouped according to the intention of loco-regional therapy prior to LT,and outcomes of patients were analyzed and compared between groups.RESULTS Overall,38 patients(12.3%)were detected with HCC recurrence during the follow-up period after LDLT.Patients who were radiologically beyond the University of California at San Francisco criteria and received loco-regional therapy as down-staging therapy had significant inferior outcomes to other groups for both recurrence-free survival(RFS,P<0.0005)and overall survival(P=0.046).Moreover,patients with defined profound tumor necrosis(TN)by locoregional therapy had a superior RFS(5-year of 93.8%)as compared with others(P=0.010).CONCLUSION LDLT features a flexible timely transplantation for patient with HCC.However,the loco-regional therapy prior to LDLT does not seem to provide benefit unless a certain effect in terms of profound TN is noted.