Liver Transplantation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma at Inonu University

Abstract

There is a great effort in the world to find a new drug in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment. Turkey has a limited number of basic science studies to discover a new therapeutic drug for HCC. It seems that Turkey is distanced from the global drug discovery race and competition, however, Turkey has the advantage of a wide experience in living donor liver transplantation, like South Korea and Japan. Turkey can plan new studies on HCC, particularly with living donor liver transplantation. Neoadjuvant treatment methods before living donor liver transplantation for advanced tumors would be a good idea for study in Turkey. Because Inonu University has the busiest liver transplantation program in Turkey, the contribution of Inonu University to trials like this can improve the depth of the studies. To conclude, the Inonu University Liver Transplantation Institute has the busiest program in Turkey with 1,600 transplantations in eight years. The program is based on living donor liver transplantations (80%). Living donor liver transplantation for advanced HCC patients is our favorite topic to study.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Liver transplantation; Living donation; Survival; Tumor staging.