Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 14, 2022; 28(34): 4929-4942
Published online Sep 14, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i34.4929
Therapeutic strategies for post-transplant recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma
Carlo Sposito, Davide Citterio, Matteo Virdis, Carlo Battiston, Michele Droz Dit Busset, Maria Flores, Vincenzo Mazzaferro
Carlo Sposito, Davide Citterio, Matteo Virdis, Carlo Battiston, Michele Droz Dit Busset, Maria Flores, Vincenzo Mazzaferro, HPB Surgery, Hepatology and Liver Transplantation, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori di Milano, Milan 20133, Italy
Carlo Sposito, Vincenzo Mazzaferro, Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan 20100, Italy
Author contributions: Sposito C wrote and revised the paper; Citterio D, Virdis M, Battiston C, Droz Dit Busset M and Flores M wrote the paper and the tables; Virdis M drew the figures; Flores M and Battiston C did literature research; Mazzaferro V have reviewed the paper for important intellectual content.
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: Carlo Sposito, MD, Associate Professor, Surgeon, HPB Surgery, Hepatology and Liver Transplantation, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori di Milano, Via Venezian 1, Milan 20133, Italy. carlo.sposito@istitutotumori.mi.it
Received: January 27, 2022
Peer-review started: January 27, 2022
First decision: February 24, 2022
Revised: March 5, 2022
Accepted: July 26, 2022
Article in press: July 26, 2022
Published online: September 14, 2022
Core Tip

Core tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is becoming the most common indication for liver transplantation (LT). The problem of tumor recurrence after LT, that occurs in up to 20% of cases, is becoming of increasing interest. We reviewed of the available literature on HCC recurrence after LT. The best preventive measures still rely on pretransplant selection criteria, since no dedicated follow-up guidelines exist and no post-LT adjuvant treatments are available. When recurrence occurs, the prognosis is poor. However, aggressive surgical treatment, particularly in the case of late recurrence, may provide a significant survival benefit.