A prognostic fingerprint in liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma based on plasma metabolomics profiling

Abstract Introduction Tumor recurrence is a major cause of post-transplant mortality in liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to explore an effective noninvasive approach to accurately predict post-transplant tumor recurrence. Materials and methods Metabolomics profiling was performed on pre-operative plasma from 122 HCC patients undergoing liver transplantation, 52 healthy controls (HC) and 25 liver cirrhosis (LC) patients. Results Five prognostic metabolites were identified by univariate analysis ( P e P P P P P Conclusions The established pre-operative plasma fingerprint/nomogram is efficient in the prediction of recurrence risk, which could facilitate candidate selection in liver transplantation for HCC.