Primary hepatic malignancies: resection or liver transplantation?

Liver transplantation in malignancies must be confined to patients with potentially curable disease. The indication is widely accepted, however, in non-resectable tumors or in patients with cirrhosis that excludes major resection. Without treatment prognosis is extremely poor in these patients. In our own experience 12 out of 13 non-cirrhotic patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) died within 9 months, and 17 out of 19 cirrhotic patients died within the first year of non-curative or explorative surgery. None of our patients with HCC in non-cirrhotic livers has lived longer than 38 months, and those with cirrhotic livers more than 61 months even after curative resection. After liver transplantation 1-year survival rate was 54% in 14 patients with primary hepatic carcinomas (12 HCC, 2 CCC). In cirrhotic patients with large or infiltrating HCC the results of resection are worse than after grafting, at least in the Western World, so liver transplantation must be taken into consideration. The lack of grafts limits treatment by transplantation in these patients. Transplantation is only exceptionally indicated for patients with metastatic liver disease.