Objective: To investigate the effect of adjuvant individualized chemotherapy in prevention of tumor recurrence and improvement of patient survival after liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Methods: 21 HCC cases received orthotopic liver transplantation and treated with adjuvant individualized chemotherapy based on ATP tumor chemosensitivity assay (ex vivo) between April 2001 and January 2003 were retrospective reviewed, compared with 52 cases received orthotopic liver transplantation only. The cumulative and tumor-free survivals were compared between 2 groups.
Results: The 1, 2 years overall survival rates were 92.31%, 73.85% for the individualized chemotherapy group and 92.06%, 63.93% for the non-chemotherapy group, the difference was not statistically significant. The 6, 12, 18, 24 months tumor-free survival rates were 90.00%, 80.00%, 80.00%, 60.00% and 67.31%, 51.92%, 40.03%, 37.81% respectively, the difference was statistically significant (P <0.05).
Conclusions: This study suggests that tumor recurrence decreases and tumor-free survival increases by adjuvant individualized chemotherapy after liver transplantation for HCC. The individualized protocol based on ATP-TCA may be effective for patients with HCC after liver transplantation.