Radioembolization in the setting of liver transplantation. Great expectations or hard times?

Trans-arterial radio-embolization (TARE) with yttrium-90 represents one of the most efficacious approaches for the treatment of selected patients with advanced hepatocellular cancer (HCC) (1). Recent studies have confirmed the superiority of TARE when compared with other intraarterial treatments (2,3). A randomized phase II study comparing TARE and trans-arterial chemo-embolization (TACE) in HCC patients meeting Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stages A-B showed a longer median timeto- progression (>26 vs. 6.8 months; P value =0.001), and a better tumor control in post-TARE cases (2). Another study similarly compared TARE and TACE patients homogeneously selected using a propensity score matching: also in this case, TARE presented higher overall complete response rates (84% vs. 58%; P value <0.001), and longer median progression-free survivals (564 vs. 271 days; P value =0.002) (3).