2024 Volume 59 Issue 2 Pages 137-145
What is transplant oncology? It is an emerging concept to bring cancer care and research to the next level by integrating transplantation medicine and oncology proposed from Japan in 2014. It is defined as “any application of transplant medicine and surgery to the treatment of cancer aimed at improving patients' survival and quality of life” and is composed of four pillars (4 E's): i) Evolution of multidisciplinary cancer management, ii) Extension of the limits of conventional cancer surgery, iii) Elucidation of self- and non-self recognition by linking tumor and transplant immunology, and iv) Exploration of molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis, invasion, and metastasis by immunogenomic approaches.
In this review, we will primarily focus on how transplant oncology will unlock the future of patients suffering from intractable cancers by incorporating liver transplantation and its operative techniques into the management of hepatobiliary malignancies.
