Tumours and liver transplants
Liver transplantation as a curative treatment method can be used for selected primary liver tumours, in particular for hepatocellular carcinoma and rather rare semi-malignant tumours such as epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, further for infiltration of liver by metastatic neuroendocrine tumours (provided that metastases are only located in the liver and the primary tumour was removed) and for benign tumours (hemangiomas and adenomas) with oppression symptoms and size progression. Cholangiocarcinoma is not indicated for liver transplantation at the CKTCH Brno. In recent years liver transplants for hepatocellular carcinoma have increased and hepatocellular carcinoma has also been more frequently found ex post, in the explanted livers. Liver transplantation is indicated in selected patients with a good chance of long-term survival after liver transplantation (a generally accepted limit is 5 year survival of 50 % after transplantation). By 20 March 2015 there were liver transplants carried out on 38 patients - in 25 of them was hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosed before transplantation and in 13 it was found in the liver explants. 5 year survival following transplantation is reached by 53 % of this cohort. 32 % patients suffered from chronic hepatitis C. The longest surviving (32 years) patient at CKTCH Brno had liver transplanted for a big fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, which points to the prognostic significance of tumour histology: the criterion only considered in some indication schemes for practical reasons. Benign liver tumours (adenomatosis, cystadenoma, hemangioma with oppression symptoms) are rather rare indications and the transplantation results are favourable. 4 patients underwent transplantation for infiltration of liver by carcinoid, tumour recurrence occurred in one.