Validation of novel Japanese indication criteria and biomarkers among living donor liver transplantation recipients with hepatocellular carcinoma - a single center retrospective study

Abstract

Aim: To validate a novel Japanese indication criteria for liver transplantation (LT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), i.e., the 5-5-500 criteria (nodule size ≤ 5 cm in diameter, nodule number ≤ 5, and alfa-fetoprotein (AFP) value ≤ 500 ng/mL) and the Japanese double eligibility criteria (DEC) (patients meeting the Milan or the 5-5-500 criteria) in the University of Tokyo cohort. The usefulness of biomarkers in predicting the recurrence of HCC was also verified.

Methods: The overall survival and recurrence rates of patients meeting the Milan, 5-5-500, and the Japanese DEC were compared among 153 patients who underwent living donor LT (LDLT) between 1996 and 2019. A receiver-operating characteristics curve analysis was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of AFP, lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive fraction of AFP, des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, and the platelet-lymphocyte ratio to detect recurrence.

Results: The 5-year recurrence rate for all patients, those meeting the Japanese DEC, 5-5-500 criteria, and the Milan criteria was 10.9%, 9.2%, 7.4%, and 7.6%, respectively. Compared with the conventional Milan criteria, the 5-5-500 criteria and the Japanese DEC could increase the number of eligible LDLT candidates by 6.1% and 11.4%. Among five biomarkers, the area under the curve value of AFP was the highest (0.852).

Conclusion: The results suggest that the 5-5-500 criteria and the Japanese DEC are the appropriate selection criteria for patients with HCC in LDLT. Among five biomarkers investigated, AFP was most reliable to predict HCC recurrence, which justified the utilization of AFP in the 5-5-500 criteria and the Japanese DEC.

Keywords

Indication criteria of liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma / the 5-5-500 criteria / the Japanese double eligibility criteria / alfa-fetoprotein / the lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive fraction of alfa-fetoprotein / the des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin / the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio / the platelet-lymphocyte ratio

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