Liver resection is the only potentially curative treatment option in patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer, but only\nabout 20% of the patients are resectable. Liver transplantation of patients with unresectable liver metastases was attempted in the\nearly era but it was abandoned due to poor survival. During the last decade, several case reports, a controlled pilot study, and a\nretrospective cohort study indicated that prolonged disease-free survival and overall survival can be obtained in a proportion of\nthese patients. Strict selection criteria have not yet been well defined, but tumor load, response to chemotherapy, pretransplant\ncarcinoembryonic antigen level, and time interval from resection of the primary tumor to transplant are all factors related to\noutcome.Carefully selected patients may obtain 5-year overall survival that approaches conventional indications for liver transplant.\nThescarcity of liver grafts is a significant problem, but this can possibly to some extent be addressed by use of extended criteria grafts\nand novel surgical techniques. There is an increasing interest in liver transplantation in these patients in the transplant community,\nand currently 4 clinical trials are active and are recruiting.
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