Qualifying for Transplant Surgery

This is a rather brief explanation of transplant and qualification details.

Liver transplantation may be an option for people whose bile duct tumors have not spread outside of the liver, but cannot be completely removed. Patients are treated with radiation therapy and chemotherapy before liver transplantation. Tumors can recur after transplantation. In some cases, liver transplantation has been curative. This approach has achieved results superior to standard surgical therapy, with an almost 82% 5-year remission survival rate for patients with unresectable disease. Some of the qualifications for entry into a program like this require a patient generally in good health, no liver cancer tumors or metastases present, and no invasiveness of the lymph nodes.

Prior to transplantation, patients undergo exploratory abdominal surgery to look for regional lymph node metastases, peritoneal metastases or local extension of disease that would preclude complete removal of the tumor. Approximately one-third of patients have metastases discovered during a staging operation.