Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of liver transplantation as a treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Methods: From July 1995 to October 1998, eight liver cancer patients with cirrhosis underwent liver transplantation in Queen Mary Hospital. The liver grafts were obtained from 6 brainstem dead donors and 2 living donors. Five patients had known HCC and 3 had incidental tumor identified in the explanted liver. TNM staging: stage II (5 cases), stage III (2 cases) and stage IV a (1 case). After liver transplantation, the patients were followed up prospectively for a median of 36 months. Except for one patient who had preoperative chemotherapy, no anticancer treatment was given before and after transplantation.
Results: Three patients had acute rejection, 5 developed complication in early post transplantation. All were treated promptly and improved. One patient died one year after operation from septicemia. The recurrence-free survival rates of one and three years were 100% and 83.3%, respectively.
Conclusions: Liver transplantation is a feasible method for treatment of HCC in selected patients. Living donor liver transplantation can overcome the problems of donor shortage and tumor growth while waiting for liver transplantation.