Dr. Parikh on Determining Transplant Eligibility in HCC

Neehar Parikh, MD, medical director, Multidisciplinary Liver Tumor Clinic, Living Donor Liver Transplantation Program, assistant professor, Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan, discusses criteria for determining transplant eligibility in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Though transplant eligibility can vary between centers, the Milan Criteria for Liver Transplantation have helped standardize the criteria that are used to assess whether a patient is fit to undergo transplant, explains Parikh.

The criteria for accepting transplant candidates are relatively selective, says Parikh. Other qualifications such as lack of social support and psychosocial issues may render a patient ineligible for transplant.

In some cases, patients who do not meet the standard eligibility criteria are transplanted through living donors or are treated with alternative therapies as a bridge to transplant, concludes Parikh.