Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jun 8, 2015; 7(10): 1347-1354
Published online Jun 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i10.1347
Published online Jun 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i10.1347
Liver transplantation as a management of hepatocellular carcinoma
Ayman Zaki Azzam, Department of General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21526, Egypt
Author contributions: Azzam AZ solely contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest: The other authors have no conflicts of interest or financial ties to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ayman Zaki Azzam, MD, PhD, Department of General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, 22 Al-Guish Avenue, Alexandria 21526, Egypt. aazzam70@yahoo.com
Telephone: +966-11-4647272 Fax: +966-11-4423941
Received: August 28, 2014
Peer-review started: August 29, 2014
First decision: October 14, 2014
Revised: March 17, 2015
Accepted: April 1, 2015
Article in press: April 7, 2015
Published online: June 8, 2015
Peer-review started: August 29, 2014
First decision: October 14, 2014
Revised: March 17, 2015
Accepted: April 1, 2015
Article in press: April 7, 2015
Published online: June 8, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a poor prognosis if untreated. Screening is challenging due to the lack of specific biomarkers. Successful screening is very important as early diagnosis can provide curative opportunities. Orthotopic liver transplantation (LT) is the best therapeutic option for early, unresectable HCC. When transplantation occurs within the established Milan criteria, the outcomes are good. The shortage of organs from deceased donors led to the adoption of extended criteria. Several measures have been taken to solve these problems including prioritization of patients with HCC, use of pretransplant adjuvant treatment, and living donor LT.