Bridging and downstaging treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma in patients on the waiting list for liver transplantation

Table 2 Selected studies on non-surgical bridging therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma before liver transplantation n (%)

Ref.	Treatment	Patients	HCC stage	Dropout rate -Total -HCC progression	HCC recurrence after LT	Intention-to-treat survival	Survival after LT
Fontana et al[99]	RFA	33 (15 LT)	MC (30 pts)	NA	2 (13)	NA	85% at 3 yr
Graziadei et al[60]	TACE	48 (41 LT)	MC	0	1 (2.4)	94% at 5 yr	94% at 5 yr
Hayashi et al[61]	TACE	20 (12 LT)	MC	6 (35)	NA	61% at 3 yr	100% at 4 yr
Maddala et al[98]	TACE	54 (46 LT)	MC (47 pts)	8 (14.8)	5 (13.3)	61% at 5 yr	74% at 5 yr
				6 (11.1)
Mazzaferro et al[73]	RFA	50 (50 LT)	MC (40 pts)	0 (0)	2 (4)	NA	83% at 3 yr
Lu et al[74]	RFA	52 (41 LT)	MC (42 pts)	6 (12)	0 (0)	74% at 3 yr	76% at 3 yr
				3 (5.8)
Castrogaudin et al[81]	PEI	34 (23 LT)	UNOS T1-T2 (30 pts)	5 (14.7)	1 (4.3)	NA	19/23 (82.6%) alive (median FU 21 mo)
				2 (5.9)
Pompili et al[75]	RFA, PEI	40 (40 LT)	MC (37 pts)	NA	3 (7.5)	NA	85.4% at 3 yr
Porrett et al[79]	TACE, RFA, TARE	31 (31 LT)	UNOS T1-T2	NA	7 (22.6)	NA	84% at 3 yr
Brillet et al[76]	RFA	21 (16 LT)	MC	5 (23.8)	1 (6.3)	NA	11/16 (69%) alive (median FU 25 mo)
				3 (14.3)
Millonig et al[63]	TACE	68 (66 LT)	MC	2 (3)	5 (7.6)	70% at 5 yr	NA
Majno et al[69]	TACE	43 (43 LT)	MC	12 (27.9)	4 (9.3)	NA	NA
				4 (9.3)
Rodríguez-Sanjuán et al[77]	RFA	28 (28 LT)	MC (25 pts)	NA	2 (7.1)	NA	NA
Alba et al[64]	TACE	63 (56 LT)	MC	7 (11)	6 (10.7)	NA	60.4% at 5 yr
				3 (4.8)
Branco et al[82]	PEI	62 (59 LT)	MC	3 (4.8)	3 (5.1)	64.4% at 3 yr	67.7% at 3 yr
DuBay et al[78]	RFA	77 (51 LT)	MC	19 (25)	1 (2)	NA	> 80% at 3 yr
				16 (21)
Ashoori et al[96]	TACE + RFA	36 (16 LT)	MC	6 (16.7)	0 (0)	NA	11/16 alive (median FU 29.9 mo)
				4 (11.1)
Tsochatzis et al[67]	TACE, TAE	67 (67 LT)	MC	NA	4 (6)	NA	NA

HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; LT: Liver transplantation; RFA: Radiofrequency ablation; MC: Milan criteria; NA: Not available; TACE: Transarterial chemoembolization; PEI: Percutaneous ethanol injection; UNOS: United Network for Organ Sharing; TARE: Transarterial radio embolization; TAE: Transarterial embolization.