Living-donor liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma.
Transplant surgeons have long dreamed of achieving a complete cure for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by replacing the liver with a new graft. Although the early results of liver transplantation for HCC were disappointing, with 5-year survival less than 40%, improved results in patients who met the so-called Milan criteria rekindled the enthusiasm for the treatment of HCC with liver transplantation. Furthermore, the recent development of living-donor liver transplantation in adults has allowed timely grafting for HCC patients and tentative expansion of the criteria for transplant candidacy in patients with HCC - although such expansion is fraught with controversy. Identification of a noninvasive marker that could predict the biological behavior as well as the prognosis of HCC would indeed be a major breakthrough.
Furukawa
Hiroyuki
H
Department of Organ Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, N-15 W-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-8646, Japan.
Shimamura
Tsuyoshi
T
Suzuki
Tomomi
T
Taniguchi
Masahiko
M
Yamashita
Kenichiro
K
Kamiyama
Toshiya
T
Matsushita
Michiaki
M
Todo
Satoru
S
D000328:Adult; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000592:standards; D019520:Living Donors; D014481:United States