Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Jun 27, 2022; 14(6): 629-631
Published online Jun 27, 2022. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v14.i6.629
Advances and effectiveness of the immunotherapy after liver transplantation
Sai Swarupa R Vulasala, Nirmal K Onteddu, Sindhu P Kumar, Chandana Lall, Priya Bhosale, Mayur K Virarkar
Sai Swarupa R Vulasala, Sindhu P Kumar, Chandana Lall, Mayur K Virarkar, Department of Radiology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Jacksonville, FL 32209, United States
Nirmal K Onteddu, Department of Internal Medicine, Flowers Hospital, Dothan, AL 36305, United States
Priya Bhosale, Division of Diagnostic Imaging, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Author contributions: Vulasala SSR, Onteddu NK, Kumar SP, Lall C, Bhosale P, and Virarkar MK have equal contributions to this article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sai Swarupa R Vulasala, MBBS, Research Assistant, Department of Radiology, University of Florida College of Medicine, 655 West 8th Street, C90, 2nd Floor, Clinical Center, Jacksonville, FL 32209, United States. vulasalaswarupa@gmail.com
Received: November 23, 2021
Peer-review started: November 23, 2021
First decision: January 12, 2022
Revised: January 15, 2022
Accepted: June 13, 2022
Article in press: June 13, 2022
Published online: June 27, 2022
Abstract

Transplant recipients usually have increased chances of graft rejection and graft vs host disease, requiring chronic immunosuppressive therapy. Nonetheless, long-term immunosuppression risks malignancies such as skin cancer, lymphoma, and Kaposi sarcoma. However, there are very few studies that included solid organ transplant recipients while studying the efficacy of immunotherapy. “Immunotherapy after liver transplantation: Where are we now?” is a study, where the authors described the mechanism of action and outcomes of immune checkpoint inhibitors specific to liver transplant recipients. The authors reported the graft rejection rates and the factors contributing to the rejection in the liver transplant recipients.

Keywords: Immunotherapy, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Immune checkpoint inhibitors, Liver transplantation, Solid organ transplant, Graft rejection

Core Tip: There is an increased risk of cancer among transplant recipients receiving chronic immunosuppression. Immunotherapy has a beneficiary effect over immunosuppressors in reducing the overall cancer risk. However, there are very few studies that included solid organ transplant recipients while studying the efficacy of immunotherapy. “Immunotherapy after liver transplantation: Where are we now?” is a study, where the authors described the mechanism of action and outcomes of immune checkpoint inhibitors specific to liver transplant recipients.