0000000000620646
AUTHOR
Roberto Troisi
Improved Survival in Liver Transplant Patients Receiving Prolonged-release Tacrolimus-based Immunosuppression in the European Liver Transplant Registry (ELTR): An Extension Study
BACKGROUND: We compared, through the European Liver Transplant Registry, long-term liver transplantation outcomes with prolonged-release tacrolimus (PR-T) versus immediate-release tacrolimus (IR-T)-based immunosuppression. This retrospective analysis comprises up to 8-year data collected between 2008 and 2016, in an extension of our previously published study. METHODS: Patients with <1 month follow-up were excluded; patients were propensity score matched for baseline characteristics. Efficacy measures included: univariate/multivariate analyses of risk factors influencing graft/patient survival up to 8 years posttransplantation, and graft/patient survival up to 4 years with PR-T versus IR-T.…
Outcome of liver transplantation for hepatopulmonary syndrome: a Eurotransplant experience.
Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a pulmonary vascular complication of liver disease that affects up to 30% of patients with cirrhosis [1]. Intrapulmonary vascular dilatations and shunts result in gas exchange abnormalities, ranging from elevated alveolar-arterial oxygen gradients with no hypoxemia to very severe hypoxemia [1, 2]. Currently, liver transplantation (LT) is the only treatment option [3]. The Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) is a scoring system for assessing liver disease severity that has been validated to predict the 3-months waitlist mortality, and is used by Eurotransplant for prioritising allocation of liver transplants [4]. Footnotes This manuscript has recently b…
12-month follow-up analysis of a multicenter, randomized, prospective trial in de novo liver transplant recipients (LIS2T) comparing cyclosporine microemulsion (C2 monitoring) and tacrolimus.
The LIS2T study was an open-label, multicenter study in which recipients of a primary liver transplant were randomized to cyclosporine microemulsion (CsA-ME) (Neoral) (n = 250) (monitoring of blood concentration at 2 hours postdose) C2 or tacrolimus (n = 245) (monitoring of trough drug blood level [predose]) C0 to compare efficacy and safety at 3 and 6 months and to evaluate patient status at 12 months. All patients received steroids with or without azathioprine. At 12 months, 85% of CsA-ME patients and 86% of tacrolimus patients survived with a functioning graft (P not significant). Efficacy was similar in deceased- and living-donor recipients. Significantly fewer hepatitis C–positive pati…
Sirolimus Use in Liver Transplant Recipients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Randomized, Multicenter, Open-Label Phase 3 Trial
International audience; BACKGROUND:We investigated whether sirolimus-based immunosuppression improves outcomes in liver transplantation (LTx) candidates with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).METHODS:In a prospective-randomized open-label international trial, 525 LTx recipients with HCC initially receiving mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor-free immunosuppression were randomized 4 to 6 weeks after transplantation into a group on mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor-free immunosuppression (group A: 264 patients) or a group incorporating sirolimus (group B: 261). The primary endpoint was recurrence-free survival (RFS); intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis was conducted after 8 years. Overal…
A prospective randomised, open-labeled, trial comparing sirolimus-containing versus mTOR-inhibitor-free immunosuppression in patients undergoing liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma
Abstract Background The potential anti-cancer effects of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors are being intensively studied. To date, however, few randomised clinical trials (RCT) have been performed to demonstrate anti-neoplastic effects in the pure oncology setting, and at present, no oncology endpoint-directed RCT has been reported in the high-malignancy risk population of immunosuppressed transplant recipients. Interestingly, since mTOR inhibitors have both immunosuppressive and anti-cancer effects, they have the potential to simultaneously protect against immunologic graft loss and tumour development. Therefore, we designed a prospective RCT to determine if the mTOR inhibito…
The Southampton Consensus Guidelines for Laparoscopic Liver Surgery: From Indication to Implementation
OBJECTIVE: The European Guidelines Meeting on Laparoscopic Liver Surgery was held in Southampton on February 10 and 11, 2017 with the aim of presenting and validating clinical practice guidelines for laparoscopic liver surgery.BACKGROUND: The exponential growth of laparoscopic liver surgery in recent years mandates the development of clinical practice guidelines to direct the speciality's continued safe progression and dissemination.METHODS: A unique approach to the development of clinical guidelines was adopted. Three well-validated methods were integrated: the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network methodology for the assessment of evidence and development of guideline statements; th…