title: Scoring selection criteria including total tumour volume and pretransplant percentage of lymphocytes to predict recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma after liver transplantation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The selection criteria for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to undergo liver transplantation should accurately predict posttransplant recurrence while not denying potential beneficiaries. In the present study, we attempted to identify risk factors associated with posttransplant recurrence and to expand the selection criteria.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adult patients with HCC who underwent liver transplantation between November 2004 and September 2012 at our centre were recruited into the current study (N = 241). Clinical and pathological data were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who died during the perioperative period or died of non-recurrence causes were excluded from this study (N = 25). All potential risk factors were analysed using uni- and multi-variate analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty-one recipients of 216 qualified patients suffered from recurrence. Similar recurrence-free and long-term survival rates were observed between living donor liver transplant recipients (N = 60) and deceased donor liver transplant recipients (N = 156). Total tumour volume (TTV) and preoperative percentage of lymphocytes (L%) were two independent risk factors in the multivariate analysis. We propose a prognostic score model based on these two risk factors. Patients within our criteria achieved a similar recurrence-free survival to patients within the Milan criteria. Seventy-one patients who were beyond the Milan criteria but within our criteria also had comparable survival to patients within the Milan criteria.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TTV and L% are two risk factors that contribute to posttransplant recurrence. Selection criteria based on these two factors, which are proposed by our study, expanded the Milan criteria without increasing the risk of posttransplant recurrence.
authors.affiliation: Division of Liver Transplantation, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China.
authors.forename: Chuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Tian-Fu
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Lu-Nan
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jia-Ying
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ming-Qing
authors.initials: MQ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Wen-Tao
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yong-Gang
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Wei
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D018579:Patient Selection; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate; D014019:Tissue Donors