Comparison of the outcomes of patients who underwent deceased-donor or living-donor liver transplantation after successful downstaging therapy.

BACKGROUND

Many controversies exist on the different outcomes of living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) or deceased-donor liver transplantation (DDLT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recipients.

AIMS

We aimed to determine the difference in outcomes between HCC patients who underwent LDLT or DDLT after successful downstaging therapy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Eighty-three adult patients were diagnosed with advanced HCC and received a liver transplantation after various successful downstaging therapies: 31 patients underwent LDLT and 52 patients underwent DDLT. We retrospectively collected and analyzed the data of these two groups.

RESULTS

The LDLT and DDLT groups showed similar overall complication rates and mortality rates. The overall 1-, 3- and 5-year recurrence-free rates were 77.4, 71, and 62.7% after LDLT and 80.7, 69.2, and 60.5% after DDLT (P=0.771). The overall patient survival rates at 1, 3, and 5 years were 90.3, 74.2, and 71% after LDLT and 90.4, 71.2, and 67.3% after DDLT (P=0.860). The 1-, 3-, and 5-year post-transplant hepatitis B virus recurrence rates were 4, 5, and 10.5%, respectively, for the patients who underwent LDLT and 2.6, 6.7, and 10.7%, respectively, for the patients who underwent DDLT (P=0.918).

CONCLUSION

These data strongly suggest that no significant differences in postoperative complications, tumor recurrence rate, survival rate, and hepatitis B virus recurrence exist between DDLT and LDLT patients.