Cigrovski Berkovic M, Mrzljak A, Melandro F, Lai Q. Inclusion criteria for liver transplantation in patients with colorectal liver metastases: How to make the best selection? World J Clin Oncol 2025; 16(6): 106629 [DOI: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i6.106629]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Maja Cigrovski Berkovic, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department for Sport and Exercise Medicine, University of Zagreb Faculty of Kinesiology, Horvacanski zavoj 15, Zagreb 10000, Croatia. maja.cigrovskiberkovic@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Clin Oncol. Jun 24, 2025; 16(6): 106629 Published online Jun 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i6.106629
Inclusion criteria for liver transplantation in patients with colorectal liver metastases: How to make the best selection?
Maja Cigrovski Berkovic, Anna Mrzljak, Fabio Melandro, Quirino Lai
Maja Cigrovski Berkovic, Department for Sport and Exercise Medicine, University of Zagreb Faculty of Kinesiology, Zagreb 10000, Croatia
Anna Mrzljak, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb 10000, Croatia
Anna Mrzljak, Department of Medicine, University of Zagreb Faculty of Medicine, Zagreb 10000, Croatia
Fabio Melandro, Transplant Unit, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome 00161, Italy
Quirino Lai, General Surgery and Organ Transplantation Unit, Department of Surgery, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome 00018, Italy
Author contributions: Cigrovski Berkovic M and Lai Q were responsible for the conception, design, analysis, and writing of the study; Cigrovski Berkovic M, Mrzljak A, and Melandro F were involved with the collection and interpretation of data; Cigrovski Berkovic M, Mrzljak A, Melandro F and Lai Q participated in data management, review and editing of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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: Maja Cigrovski Berkovic, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department for Sport and Exercise Medicine, University of Zagreb Faculty of Kinesiology, Horvacanski zavoj 15, Zagreb 10000, Croatia. maja.cigrovskiberkovic@gmail.com
Received: March 3, 2025 Revised: April 3, 2025 Accepted: May 21, 2025 Published online: June 24, 2025 Processing time: 109 Days and 4.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRLM) strongly impact patients’ survival despite available chemotherapy, surgical removal of liver metastases, and locoregional treatment alone or in combination with systemic chemotherapy. In the last few decades, liver transplantation (LT) in a selected patient population has significantly improved survival, nearing 83% during a 5-year follow-up. The selection of patients with CRLM for LT represents a significant challenge, requiring a balance between oncological outcomes and organ scarcity. Stringent criteria for eligible patient selection are key to long-term patient survival and can be summarized into those related to tumor biology and oncological factors, patient and donor characteristics, and previous response to therapy. Until more generalizable data are available, we explore and compare the inclusion and exclusion criteria used in various studies registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, highlighting their similarities, differences, and implications.
