Transplants for Liver Cancer

To receive a liver transplant, a person must be in good health, and without significant lung or heart disease. In addition, the cancer must be localized, meaning it has not spread beyond the liver.

Doctors also want to make sure that a potential recipient of a new liver is ready to care for it. A transplant recipient must take lifelong immune-suppressing medication so that their body doesn’t reject the new organ.

A donated liver often comes from a deceased donor—a person who has just died. The wait time can be as long as one to two years through donor registries. It often depends on how long it takes to find the right match for your blood type and body size, while also ensuring that the cancer has remained localized to the liver.

While you wait, our doctors provide other treatments, such as ablation or embolization, to manage liver cancer and help prevent it from growing.

Wait times may be shorter if doctors are able to use a donated portion of a liver from a living person who is a blood match. This is usually a close relative, such as a parent, sibling, or son or daughter. The transplanted portion of the liver regenerates and grows to an appropriate size in the recipient.

NYU Langone was one of the first medical centers in the country to implement a living donor liver transplant program.

When an organ has been found, NYU Langone’s transplant team prepares you for surgery. If a liver from a deceased donor becomes available, you need to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Most organs must be transported from another medical facility and can be preserved for only up to eight hours.

If the liver comes from a living donor, the timing of the procedure can be planned, so that you and the donor have surgery at the same time.

To perform a liver transplant, a surgeon makes an incision several inches long in the right side of the recipient’s abdomen under the ribs. He or she removes the cancerous liver from the body by carefully cutting the organ’s blood vessels and bile ducts. The surgeon clamps the vessels and ducts to prevent bleeding and leaking of bile.

Next, the donor liver is connected to the recipient’s blood vessels and bile ducts. On average, liver transplant surgery takes four to eight hours.

After a liver transplant, you may stay in the hospital for one to two weeks or longer. During this time, doctors observe you to ensure your immune system does not reject the new liver. If your body starts to do so, your doctor can treat you with medication. Your doctor also prescribes medication to prevent infection after transplant.

Initially, follow-up with your transplant physician occurs on a weekly basis. During these visits, your doctor ensures that you are healing and adjusts your medications, if needed. People who have the procedure are able to return to work and their daily routine after leaving the hospital. About 90 percent of transplanted livers are still functioning 1 year after surgery.

Members of NYU Langone’s liver transplant team provide care from the time of referral for surgery to recovery. These experts include surgeons and specialists in transplant hepatology, who help select donor livers and care for recipients; cardiologists; hematologists; neurologists; pathologists; anesthesiologists; radiologists; and immunologists. Our nurse practitioners and transplant social workers, pharmacists, nutritionists, and financial coordinators guide you through the process.