Clinical analysis of liver transplantation in treatment of liver metastatic cancer

Objective To evaluate the feasibility and outcome of liver transplantation in the treatment of liver metastatic cancer. Methods Four patients with pathologically confirmed liver metastatic cancer underwent liver transplantation, including one of liver metastases from pancreatic endocrine tumor, one from rectal endocrine tumor, one from stomach stromal tumor and one from colorectal carcinoma. Classic surgical method was adopted, i. e. orthotopic liver transplantation for the recipients and transplants came from cadaveric donors. Results All the four patients had a smooth operation, an uneventful early postoperative recovery and good living quality. The patient with liver metastases from pancreatic endocrine tumor had liver tumor recurrence at four and a half years after the transplantation, and then underwent left lateral hepatic lobectomy, without any recurrence until now. The patient with liver metastases from rectal endocrine tumor had right renal and pelvic tumor metastasis at 16 months after the operation, and died of tumor recurrence 5 years after the liver transplantation. The patient with liver metastases from gastric stromal tumor had extensive pelvic metastases at five and a half months after the transplantation, and survived with tumor for 4 years and 6 months after the operation. The patient with liver metastases from colorectal carcinoma had extensive bilateral lung metastases at 3 months after the transplantation and died one and a half years after the operation. Conclusion For well-differentiated unresectable metastatic liver cancers, liver transplantation may serve as a treatment option and better treatment results can be achieved for some highly selected patients. Key words: Neoplasm metastasis; Liver transplantation; Prognosis