Efficacy of loco-regional treatment for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Prior to Living Donor Liver Transplantation

Abstract

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common malignancy in the world. It causes an estimated 1250000 deaths every year worldwide. The therapeutic approach for HCC has changed significantly in the past decade HCC was considered a contraindication to liver transplantation (LT)in many transplantation centers in the early 1990s now, liver transplantation is the best available option for early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) its application is limited by stringent selection criteria .Milan criteria have remained the paradigm for the selection of the best candidates for LT in the past 10 years Down-staging of HCC is an attractive alternative to simply expanding the tumor size limits to meet Milan criteria. Loco-regional therapies used for down staging, laparoscopic radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).