HCC recurrence after Liver Transplantation in Asia vs. Europe: which is the difference?

Poster SessionBackground: Higher recurrence rates have been reported among Asian patients transplanted for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It is not clear if these results are due to a different biological behavior of the tumor or to a different modality of patient management before liver transplantation (LT). The main aim of the present study is to analyze the prognostic factors for post-LT HCC recurrence in a cohort of Asian and European patients, with the intent to analyze the relative importance of tumor-related and management-related factors. Methods: Two hundred seventy-three HCC patients transplanted from January 1999 to March 2009 were analyzed. Patients were followed up for a period of 2 years. One hundred sixteen patients were transplanted in Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong and 157 patients in the three Roman university hospitals. Results: Multivariate analysis revealed four different variables as independent risk factors for HCC recurrence: poor grading (OR 5.96; p-value 0.004), microvascular invasion (OR 4.73, p-value