[Liver transplant in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma]. / Trasplante hepático en pacientes con carcinoma hepatocelular.

ABSTRACT

Liver transplant in patients with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma is indicated in the early stages of the disease, which can be achieved with early detection programs using liver ultrasound. Dynamic imaging techniques (ultrasound with contrast, magnetic resonance and tomography) are essential in the diagnosis of this tumour, being able to type the lesion clearly, and, in the majority of cases, lead to the therapy to follow. Surgery is the treatment of choice in these patients, and liver transplant, from a theoretical point of view, is the best. Currently, the size and number of nodes play an important role in the indication of a transplant. The best liver transplant results are obtained in these patients using the Milan criteria, with survivals that exceed 70% and recurrence indices of 15%, at 5 years. Nowadays we have the possibility of using neo-adjuvant treatments to transplant, such as arterial chemoembolisation, percutaneous ablation techniques, and even liver resection as a bridging technique. The survival of patients transplanted due to liver cancer is similar to that obtained for other non-tumour diseases. In Spain it is 1, 3 and 5 years and 82%, 70% and 60%, respectively. The recurrence is between 6.4% and 16%, micro- and macrovascular invasion being its highest risk variable.