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Published on: November 7, 2020
A mixed blessing for liver transplantation patients - Rapamycin
Guang-Han Fan1, Chen-Zhi Zhang2, Feng-Qiang Gao1
1Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Affiliated Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310006, China; Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China; Key Laboratory of Integrated Oncology and Intelligent Medicine of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310006, China; Institute of Organ Transplantation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, China.
Background:
Liver transplantation (LT) is an effective treatment option for end-stage liver disease. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors, such as rapamycin, are widely used post LT.
Data Sources:
In this review, we focused on the anti-cancer activities and metabolic side effects of rapamycin after LT. The literature available on PubMed for the period of January 1999-September 2022 was reviewed. The key words were rapamycin, sirolimus, liver transplantation, hepatocellular carcinoma, diabetes, and lipid metabolism disorder.
Results:
Rapamycin has shown excellent effects and is safer than other immunosuppressive regimens. It has exhibited excellent anti-cancer activity and has the potential in preventing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence post LT. Rapamycin is closely related to two long-term complications after LT, diabetes and lipid metabolism disorders.
Conclusions:
Rapamycin prevents HCC recurrence post LT in some patients, but it also induces metabolic disorders. Reasonable use of rapamycin benefits the liver recipients.
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