Pretransplant treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma: do they improve outcomes?

1. Locoregional ablative treatments are commonly performed for heptocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients awaiting transplantation, either to prevent the patient becoming untransplantable due to tumor growth or to prevent tumor recurrence post-operatively. 2. Although these treatments are quite effective at tumor destruction, there is no clear evidence that they improve patient outcomes. 3. Prospective, randomized controlled trials are clearly needed to determine if pre-transplant therapy of HCC is of value.