Hepatoblastoma is a rare, but the most frequent intrahepatic malignancy of the childhood. In general, hepatoblastomas are diagnosed at a late stage with often large size and frequent vascular infiltration 21. Neoadjuvant CTx is the gold standard before surgical resection. Excellent results can be achieved with a monotherapy of cisplatin in standard risk tumors, cisplatin alternating with carboplatin-doxorubicin in high risk tumors and dose-intensive weekly cisplatin/doxorubicin induction therapy for very high risk tumors by the means of shrinkage of the primary tumor and control of distant metastasis10. A combination of chemotherapy and resection reaches survival rates of 81.5% and 81.0% at 5/10 years 30,31. However, despite advances in CTx, in certain cases, resection is not always feasible for anatomical or functional reasons, leaving LT as the only curative option22. We herein analyzed our own data comparing outcomes in children with hepatoblastoma after resection with LT.
Demographic data showed an equal distribution in both groups. As expected, in the LT cohort, disease severity according to PRETEXT was significantly higher. Similarly, Kulkarni et al. demonstrated that patients with bilobar involvement were more likely to receive LT based on an analysis of the National Cancer Database for surgical therapy of pediatric hepatoblastoma. However, patients in the LT group had a longer overall time from diagnosis to surgery associated with waiting list time in addition to neoadjuvant chemotherapy 23. With respect to early and late complications, long-term course and metastases, the results of our analysis show an equal distribution in both groups. Interestingly, none of the patients developed hepatic local recurrence or intrahepatic metastasis after LT and only three patients after LR.
Nevertheless, the decision, when to opt for surgical resection, LT or CTx without surgical intervention can become a balancing act: In general, the basic recommendation for LT in PRETEXT stage IV tumors and centrally placed PRETEXT stage III tumors with infiltration of vascular structures after neoadjuvant CTx is primary resection 24. Additionally, according to the current surgical guidelines of the Children´s Oncology Group, children with suspected inoperable findings should be referred to a specialized center at an early stage, so that a decision between liver tumor resection and transplantation by a liver specialist can be made 25. Especially, as LT as an emergency therapy after primary LR with a small for size liver remnant or in case of a relapse after LR must be considered, as described for one patient in our cohort. The decision-making process for the most suitable therapy after neoadjuvant CTx is determined by specific tumor characteristics, such as particularly hepatoblastoma size, critical anatomical localization for LR (involvement of vascular/bilary structures, multicenter localization) and probable function of the future liver remnant 17,26−28. As Meyers et al. showed, the Children's Hepatic Tumors International Collaboration (CHIC), has created a unified global approach to risk stratification for children with hepatoblastoma 29. Regardless of this, molecular biological studies on prognostic tumor markers may play a decisive role in risk stratification and optimized patient selection in the future and will have the potential to increase the number of primarily resectable patients.
Excellent tumor control was achieved in our series with the combination of CTx and LT, considering that immunosuppression would be assumed bearing a higher recurrence risk (e.g. like in hepatocellar carcinoma in adults) 35. There was no incidence of local recurrence or secondary malignant tumors in our LT group.
Due to concerns for the transplanted graft, only one patient received adjuvant chemotherapy after LT (i.e. our patient with pulmonary metastases). In contrast, 96.4% of the patients in the LR group received adjuvant treatment. This is of special interest, as the recurrence rate was 0% in the LT group. While there is no unique strategy or consent on adjuvant chemotherapy after LT, admittedly there are centers following this concept. Without any decisive evidence, this decision probably has to be made on an individualized level. SIOPEL-1 and the World Experience Review showed even superior survival rates of 85% at 10 years and 82% at 10 years after primary transplantation 30,31. Zsiros et al. showed in the SIOPEL-3 and-4 studies that transplantation was associated with a 75% 3-year survival rate32,33.
With respect to peri- and post-operative complications, these were comparable in our cohort between both groups. However, as expected, operative time, ICU stay and hospital stay were considerably longer in the LT group, matching the study by Kulkarni et. al. 23. In general, outcomes after LT in pediatric patients are superior to adults, independent of donor or indication for transplantation, reaching 1-year survival rates of up to 95%34. Adults undergoing LT for malignant tumors, have unsatisfactory outcomes, in part due to tumor recurrence. Certainly, hepatocellular carcinoma or cholangiocellular carcinoma cannot be directly compared to hepatoblastoma with respect to long term recurrence outcomes, however, hepatoblastoma patients must be considered for LT in unresectable cases, despite donor organ scarcity due to the excellent results.
Limitations of our study are the small sample size, the retrospective study design and the variance in the different therapy strategies. However, data to hepatoblastoma are not widely published and we feel indeed, that our study adds to previously published research.
In conclusion, we want to highlight the necessity of a detailed assessment by an experienced interdisciplinary team in a center for HPB, pediatric and transplant surgery for LR in hepatoblastoma, especially in advanced cases. Results after CTx plus LT in advanced cases of HB are excellent and long term outcome is comparable to resection in combination with CTx.