Locoregional therapy response in patients with hepatocellular cancer waiting for liver transplantation. Only selection or biological effect?
Locoregional treatments (LRT) represent a broad strategy used for reducing the risk of drop-off and contextually improving the survivals in patients with hepatocellular cancer receiving a liver transplantation (LT). However, it is not sufficiently clear if LRT are only a surrogate of tumor aggressiveness or if they consent a real benefit in terms of tumor stabilization. A recent study by Pommergaard et al reported the results from the European Liver Transplant Registry. Patients receiving LRT before LT had better 5-year survival rates respect to no-LRT cases (69.7% vs 65.8%; P < 0.001).