Sato Yoshinobu, Yamamoto Satoshi, Oya Hiroshi, Nakatsuka Hideki, Kobayashi Takashi, Takeishi Toshiyuki, Hirano Kenichiro, Hara Yoshiaki, Watanabe Takaoki, Waguri Nobuo, Suda Takeshi, Ichida Takafumi, Aoyagi Yutaka, Hatakeyama Katsuyoshi
Division of Digestive and General Surgery, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan.
Hepatogastroenterology. 2005 Sep-Oct;52(65):1325-8.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: In this study we evaluated the potential role of preoperative h-TERT mRNA expression in peripheral blood as a tool for predicting prognosis and tumor recurrence after living-related liver donor transplantation (LRLDT).
The study included patients with unresectable HCC who underwent LRLDT from July 1999 to May 2003.
There was no significant difference between the survival curves of those patients who met the Milan criteria and those who did not. However, there was a statistically significant difference (p=0.032) between the survival curves of those patients with positive preoperative h-TERT mRNA expression, and those who either had an initially negative preoperative h-TERT mRNA or who converted from positive to negative after neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy.
In conclusion, the presence or absence of h-TERT mRNA in the peripheral blood may be a useful criterion in evaluating HCC patients for transplantation, as well as a valuable method of assessing anti-tumor therapy and tumor relapse.