Options for the treatment of intrahepatic recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma: Salvage liver transplantation or rehepatectomy?

Abstract Objective To explore prognostic factors by comparing the efficacy of salvage liver transplantation (sLT) and rehepatectomy (RH) for the treatment of recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatectomy. Methods Clinical data were collected for 124 patients treated at our center from January 2012 to August 2018. The median follow‐up time for the patients was 39 months. By analyzing the clinical data between the sLT group (46 cases) and RH group (78 cases), the factors affecting the prognosis of patients were compared. Results The proportion of alpha‐fetoprotein (AFP) ≥ 100 µg/L in the recurrence group was significantly higher than that in the recurrence‐free group (70.0% vs 22.2%, P = .014). The postoperative overall survival (OS) and recurrence‐free survival (RFS) were better in the sLT group than in the RH group (81.2% vs 36.9%, P < .01; 77.1% vs 55.6%, P = .019). In the sLT group, the OS and RFS in the AFP < 100 µg/L group were superior to those in the AFP ≥ 100 µg/L group ( P = .046 and P = .002). Conclusion The sLT group had achieved better efficacy than RH group, but when AFP ≥ 100 µg/L, sLT did not achieve better efficacy than RH.