Do I need chemotherapy after liver transplantation for liver cancer or not? What chemotherapy drugs should be used?

  Whether chemotherapy is needed after liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma is a major concern of clinical patients and has been a somewhat controversial issue. Combined with domestic and foreign literature reports and our own experience, we mainly consider the following aspects: 1. For small liver cancer or liver transplantation of liver cancer meeting Milan criteria, postoperative chemotherapy is generally not considered, but chemotherapy is recommended for AFP over 700ng/ml; 2. For liver transplantation of liver cancer exceeding Milan criteria, postoperative chemotherapy is generally recommended.  How to choose chemotherapy drugs?  At present, there are more chemotherapeutic drugs used clinically for liver cancer, such as 5-fluorouracil, cisplatin, epoetin, gemcitabine, S-1, troche, siroda, doxorubicin, Avastin, etc. Some of them which are not within the indications of liver cancer are also used for liver cancer treatment, mainly because there are no particularly effective chemotherapeutic drugs for liver cancer. According to our practical experience, we divide chemotherapy drugs into three levels of use: i. Conventional chemotherapy regimen: such as 5-fluorouracil, cisplatin, epi-amycin, etc. The cost of these drugs is relatively low, and they can be used monthly. The cost of these drugs is relatively low, about RMB 1000 per month, and the side effects are not very big, but the efficiency is low; secondly, the indications for this drug are not liver cancer, but the actual clinical application has certain efficacy. The main side effects are molting, redness, swelling and pain of hands and feet, etc.; Third, targeted therapeutic drugs: doxorubicin or vascular endothelial growth inhibitory factor: Avastin + Herodar, note: Avastin is best used in combination with Herodar. These drugs should be said to have relatively good efficacy in the existing hepatocellular carcinoma treatment drugs, but they are expensive, about RMB 50,000 per month. The main side effect of doximetry is similar to that of Herodar, and the main side effect of avastin is bleeding. Patients can choose which chemotherapy regimen to use according to their actual situation. It should be said that it is difficult to cure the tumor with these regimens, and the more ideal one can only try to slow down the development of tumor.  In addition, whether immunity-boosting drugs can be applied after hepatocellular carcinoma transplantation is also a concern of patients, who used to worry that the application of immunity-boosting drugs may cause rejection, but the actual clinical observation shows that the application of such drugs does not increase the incidence of rejection. ATPase, if the ATPase value is high, it is not necessary to use such drugs. If you can, you can take 1-2 roots of Cordyceps daily.  These are just some of the experiences that my colleagues and I have had in clinical practice, and we have no experience with some of the newer drugs, so these are for reference only. The specific condition of each patient may be different, or the patient’s own competent doctor treatment plan.