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Review Article
- Hepatocellular carcinoma and Liver transplantation
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Myoung Soo Kim
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Journal of the Korean Liver Cancer Study Group. 2007;7(1):35-40. Published online June 30, 2007
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Abstract
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- Liver transplantation is the prime management for early hepatocellular carcinoma with liver cirrhosis that is not
candidate for surgical resection. Milan criteria, single tumor less than 5 cm or less than three tumors with less
than 3 cm, is accepted as an indication for liver transplantation. The extended criteria do not show reliable result
in long-term recurrent-free survival rate. Shortage of donor and following high drop-out rate during waiting time
are main obstacle to liver transplantation, which can be alleviated by the living donor liver transplantation and
priority policies in deceased donor liver allocation. The pre-operative loco-regional therapy, such as transarterial
chemoembolization (TACE), radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and regional surgical resection, decreases the drop-out
rate for waiting time and supplies time for preparing the liver transplantation. Generally acceptable recurrence rate
after liver transplantation is less than 15%. The size of mass, vascular or lymphatic-invasion, low grade tumor
and high pre-operative level of alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) are risk factors for recurrence. The prognosis of recurred
hepatocellular carcinoma is fatal. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy after liver transplantation cannot prolong the patient
survival rate and decrease the recurrence rate. Above 50% of recurrence-free patient survival rate at
post-transplant 5 years is reliable result after liver transplantation in hepatocellular carcinoma. The survival rate
is improved after mid-1990, and is reported as 60-70% at post-transplant 5 years. The living donor liver
transplantation shows more superior survival rate than deceased donor liver transplantation.
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