MedPage Today: Promising results for living donor transplants

A new prospective study found select patients with unresectable colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRLM) had good survival outcomes following a living-donor liver transplant.

Shimul Shah, MD, professor and division chief of transplantation, vice chair for Health Services Research and James and Catherine Orr Endowed Chair of liver transplantation in the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine's Division of Surgery, and Parsia Vagefi, MD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, published an editorial in JAMA accompanying the study research. While the study is encouraging, the duo said it is important to select the proper patients for this type of procedure.

"It is imperative to better understand favorable tumor biology that goes beyond a perceived response to systemic and local therapies, because we are missing the mark if favorable tumor biology leads to recurrence within six months after transplant," Shah and Vagefi said. "We must carefully consider the use of living liver donors for this indication, given not only the current uncertainties in management of CRLM but also the growing number and availability of deceased donors and technologies such as machine perfusion, which will allow the broader sharing of marginal organs." 

Read the MedPage Today article.

Featured photo at top of Shimul Shah, MD, in surgery.