Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: racial disparities?

Liver transplantation for patients with early-stage hepatocellular cancer evidently represents an extremely effective treatment as compared to other modalities, at least by one analysis of a cancer database. However, less than one-fourth of the apparently acceptable candidates receive this treatment and African Americans are underrepresented in this group. The cause of these results, however, remains obscure with the need for a more in-depth confirmation of these findings readily apparent.