[Therapeutic effectiveness of liver transplantation: a single center study of 203 consecutive cases].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the measures to further improve the therapeutic efficacy of liver transplantation.


METHODS
The clinical data of 203 consecutive cases of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) performed in Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University April 2001 to October 2004, with the indications for considering OLT of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (142 cases), liver cirrhosis (36 cases), fulminant hepatic failure (7 cases), Wilson's disease (6 cases), and other end-stage liver diseases (12 cases), including 199 cases of cadaveric OLT, inclusive of 2 cases of reduced-size and 1 case of splitting liver transplantation, and 4 cases of living-donor liver transplantation, were retrospectively analyzed. Multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazards regression model was applied to determine the risk factors predicting liver transplantation prognosis for HCC.


RESULTS
For the whole group of the 201 patients, the 1-year and 2-year cumulative survival rates were 85.0% and 82.4% respectively and the rejection rate was 12.3%. In the HCC group the 1- and 2-year cumulative survival rates were 80.2% and 78.4%, and the 1- and 2-year disease-free survival (DFS) rates were 85.3% and 80.3% respectively. HCC recurrence was observed in 20 patients after OLT with a recurrence rate of 14.1%. Multivariate analysis revealed that the tumor size and portal vein tumor thrombus were the most independent and statistically significant factors affecting the DFS.


CONCLUSIONS
OLT may be the most effective treatment option for patients with end-stage liver diseases and may also provide the opportunity of curative treatment or survival improvement for selected patients with hepatic malignancies.
Zhou
Jian
J
Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
Fan
Jia
J
Wu
Zhi-quan
ZQ
Qiu
Shuang-jian
SJ
Wang
Zheng
Z
Huang
Xiao-wu
XW
Yu
Yao
Y
He
Yi-feng
YF
Tang
Zhao-you
ZY
Wang
Yu-qi
YQ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000379:methods* / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult