The Effect of Local Regional Therapy on Post-transplantation Survival Rate in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background and Objective: This study aims to use meta-analysis to evaluate whether pretransplantation local regional therapy (LRT) can improve the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who accepted liver transplantation. Methods: Relevant studies were identified by searching PUBMED, EMBASE and Web of Science Datebases up to May 2015. Endpoints were 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years survival rate after liver transplantation. Results: Analysis of nine retrospective studies including 1097 patients did not reveal significant difference in 1year, 3 years and 5 years survival rate between the patients who got LRT or not. Analysis of four retrospective studies including 504 patients showed patients with complete response to LRT have higher 5 years survival rate. Conclusions: The results of this meta-analysis suggest that the patients with complete response to LRT have higher post-transplantation survival rate. But LRT before liver transplantation can’t improve the overall survival rate.