title: Recurrence of hepatocellular cancer after liver transplantation: the role of primary resection and salvage transplantation in East and West.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Greater tumor aggressiveness and different management modalities of hepatocellular cancer (HCC) before liver transplantation (LT) may explain the higher recurrence rates reported in Asia. This study investigates the prognostic factors for HCC recurrence in a Western and an Eastern HCC patient cohort in order to analyze the respective roles of tumor- and management-related factors on the incidence of post-LT HCC recurrence.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data of 273 HCC patients, transplanted during the period January 1999-March 2009, were obtained from the Rome Inter-University Liver Transplant Consortium (n=157) and Hong Kong University (n=116) databases. Median follow-up was 4.3 years (range: 0.2-12). Recurrence rate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed on the entire population and on Milan criteria-in (MC-in) patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multivariate analysis on the entire population identified four independent risk factors for post-LT HCC recurrence: microvascular invasion (odds ratio, OR=4.88; p=0.001), poor tumor grading (OR=6.86; p=0.002), diameter of the largest tumor (OR=4.72; p=0.05), and previous liver resection (LR) (OR=3.34; p=0.04). After removal of LR, only tumor-related variables were independent risk factors for recurrence. When only MC-in patients were analyzed, no difference was observed between the two cohorts in terms of recurrence rate after LR patient removal.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  LR followed by salvage "for HCC recurrence" LT represents the main reason for a higher HCC recurrence rate in the Hong Kong patients, but not LR followed by salvage "for liver failure" LT in the Roman group. This approach towards HCC before LT may not be universally applicable. The precise patient background must be taken into account in order to identify the best pre-LT strategy.
authors: Department of General Surgery and Organ Transplantation, Sapienza University, Umberto I Hospital, Rome, Italy. lai.quirino@libero.it
authors: Quirino
authors: Q
authors: Lai
authors: Alfonso W
authors: AW
authors: Avolio
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Lerut
authors: Gurusharan
authors: G
authors: Singh
authors: See Ching
authors: SC
authors: Chan
authors: Pasquale B
authors: PB
authors: Berloco
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Tisone
authors: Salvatore
authors: S
authors: Agnes
authors: Kenneth S
authors: KS
authors: Chok
authors: William
authors: W
authors: Sharr
authors: Massimo
authors: M
authors: Rossi
authors: Tommaso M
authors: TM
authors: Manzia
authors: Chung Mau
authors: CM
authors: Lo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D019468:Disease Management; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012384:Rome; D016879:Salvage Therapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome