ArticleLiver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society2026
Tumor burden and frailty: No association in liver transplantation candidates with hepatocellular carcinoma.
Article in Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Frailty in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: An Unsettled Clinical Challenge.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Frailty studies in liver transplantation (LT) candidates have largely focused on patients with cirrhosis without hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, HCC patients represent a distinct subgroup-typically older, with better compensated liver disease and more non-hepatic comorbidities. These factors, along with tumor burden, may influence frailty. We aimed to characterize and compare frailty in HCC versus non-HCC LT candidates. We included adults with cirrhosis listed for LT at a single U.S. center (2012-2024) who underwent ambulatory frailty assessment using the Liver Frailty Index (LFI; "frail" = LFI ≥4.4). HCC tumor characteristics at diagnosis-including number of lesions, tumor size, alpha-foetoprotein levels, and initial treatment-were captured using automated extraction. Logistic regression evaluated associations between tumor burden and frailty. Of 2420 LT patients, 801 (33%) had HCC. Frailty was observed in only 9% of HCC patients, compared with 21% of non-HCC patients. Among frail patients, those with HCC were older, had lower MELD scores, and lower rates of ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, and dialysis. Rates of hypertension and diabetes were similar, though HCC patients trended toward more coronary artery disease. Tumor burden, total tumor diameter, and alpha-foetoprotein did not differ between frail and non-frail HCC patients ( p >0.21) and were not associated with frailty in regression analyses. In this large cohort of HCC LT candidates, frailty was associated with hepatic (eg, MELD, ascites, HE) and non-hepatic (eg, gender, obesity) factors, but not with tumor characteristics. This differs from patients with non-HCC malignancy, in whom cancer-related frailty is common. Patients with HCC awaiting liver transplantation, who generally have well-compensated liver disease, may therefore exhibit a distinct frailty profile-driven by non-hepatic comorbidities rather than by liver failure or tumor burden. These findings support the need for HCC-specific frailty research to guide evaluation and management.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.