Chinese clinical practice guidelines on liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (2021 edition)

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer and over 300, 000 people in China die of HCC each year. Liver transplantation (LT) is generally reco-gnized as one of the most effective therapeutic approaches for end‑stage liver diseases. Since the beginning of the 1990s, LT in China has been developed rapidly, and it has reached the level of deve-loped countries in terms of quantity and quality. Due to the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in China, the proportion of LT for HBV-related HCC is much higher than that in the Western countries. In order to develop an effective, safe, and standardized protocol to guide the national practice of LT for HCC, the Chinese clinical practice guideline on liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (2014 edition) was compiled by experts from the Chinese College of Transplant Doctors, et al. The guideline covers the following aspects of criteria for LT in HCC patients, preoperative downstaging treatment, anti‑hepatitis viral therapy, application of immuno-suppressants and prevention and treatment of post‑LT HCC recurrence and was updated in 2018. In order to adapt to the new situa-tion and challenges of LT for HCC in China and to keep the advanced recommendations, the guideline is updated as Chinese clinical practice guidelines on liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (2021 edition).