Effect of mandatory 6-month waiting period on waitlist and transplant outcomes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-10-2020

Publication Title

Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.)

Abstract

OPTN/UNOS policy mandates a 6-month waiting period before exception scores are granted to liver transplant candidates with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aims to evaluate waitlist and post-transplant outcomes, in HCC patients, before and after implementation of the 6-month waiting rule. We examined two groups from the UNOS registry; Group 1 (pre 6-month rule) comprised patients registered as transplant candidates with HCC from Jan. 1, 2013 to Oct. 7, 2015 (n=4,814). Group 2 (post 6-month rule) comprised patients registered from Oct. 8, 2015 to Jun. 30, 2018 (n=3,287). As expected, the transplant probability was higher in the first six months after listing in Group 1 than Group 2 at 42.0% vs 6.3% (P

Medical Subject Headings

Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Carcinoma; Hepatocellular/diagnosis/mortality/pathology/therapy; End Stage Liver Disease/diagnosis/mortality/pathology/therapy; Female; Geography; Health Plan Implementation; Health Services Accessibility/standards/statistics & numerical data; Healthcare Disparities/statistics & numerical data; Humans; Liver Neoplasms/diagnosis/mortality/pathology/therapy; Liver Transplantation/standards/statistics & numerical data; Male; Middle Aged; Patient Dropouts/statistics & numerical data; Policy; Probability; Program Evaluation; Registries/statistics & numerical data; Severity of Illness Index; Time Factors; Time-to-Treatment/standards; Tissue and Organ Procurement/standards; Treatment Outcome; United States/epidemiology; Waiting Lists/mortality; Young Adult

PubMed ID

32157711

ePublication

ePub ahead of print

Volume

72

Issue

6

First Page

2051

Last Page

2062

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