Liver Transplantation in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most common malignancy, with a new incidence of more than 11,000 cases per year and the second most common cause of malignancy-related death in Korean males. In Korea, more than 80% of all HCCs have developed from hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related cirrhotic livers. Liver transplantation (LT) is the only treatment that offers a chance of cure for HCC and the underlying liver cirrhosis simultaneously, but the availability of liver grafts and the aggressiveness of tumor recurrence are critical limiting factors of LT for HCC patients. The serious shortage of deceased-donors on strong demand for LT leads to the development of living-donor LT (LDLT) as a practical alternative replacing deceased-donor LT. Considering that HCC recurrence is the most common cause of posttransplant patient death, recipient candidates should be prudently selected through objectively established criteria. Uniquely, some Asian major LDLT centers challenged the Milan criteria, accepting a much higher number of HCC nodules instead of tumor size expansion. The eligibility criteria of LDLT for HCC are likely to be expanded more than before, but it still requires further qualified risk-benefit analyses. The development of new effective treatment modalities for HCC recurrence will reasonably expand the selection criteria further wide without the expense of recurrence rate. This article is mainly focused on the role of LT for HCC and discussed on the validity of currently available indication criteria.

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