Transplant-related survival benefit should influence prioritization for liver transplantation especially in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Transplant-related survival benefit is calculated as the difference between life expectancy with transplantation and life expectancy without transplantation. Determining eligibility and prioritization for liver transplantation based on the highest survival benefit is a superior strategy to prioritization based on the highest urgency (ie, the highest wait-list mortality) or the highest utility (ie, the highest posttransplant survival) because prioritization based on the highest survival benefit maximizes the overall life expectancy of all patients in need of liver transplantation. Although the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD)-based prioritization system was designed as an urgency-based system, in practice it functions to a large extent as a survival benefit-based system, when the natural MELD score is used without exceptions. Survival benefit considerations should be used to determine the consequences of deviating from prioritization based on the natural MELD score, such as when exception points are awarded to patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that are independent of MELD score or tumor burden, or the appropriateness of expanding eligibility for transplantation. The most promising application of survival benefit-based prioritization would be to replace the current system of prioritization of patients with HCC by one that uses their natural MELD score and tumor characteristics such as HCC tumor burden, serum alpha fetoprotein level, and response to locoregional therapies to predict the impact on survival benefit caused by the presence of HCC and adjust the natural MELD score for prioritization accordingly. Liver Transplantation 23 652-662, 2017 AASLD.