Page "Hepatocellular carcinoma" Paragraph 44

* Liver transplantation to replace the diseased liver with a cadaveric liver or a living donor graft has historically low survival rates ( 20 %- 36 %).

During 1996 – 2001 the rate had improved to 61. 1 %, likely related to adoption of the Milan criteria at US transplantation centers.

Expanded Shanghai criteria in China resulted in overall survival and disease-free survival rates similar to the Milan criteria.

Studies from the late 2000 obtained higher survival rates ranging from 67 % to 91 %.

If the liver tumor has metastasized, the immuno-suppressant post-transplant drugs decrease the chance of survival.

Considering this objective risk in conjunction with the potentially high rate of survival, some recent studies conclude that: " LTx can be a curative approach for patients with advanced HCC without extrahepatic metastasis ".

For those reasons, and others, it is considered nowadays that patient selection is a major key for success.