• René Adam, Céline Piedvache, Laurence Chiche, Jean Philippe Adam, Ephrem Salamé, Petru Bucur, Daniel Cherqui, Olivier Scatton, Victoire Granger, Michel Ducreux, Umberto Cillo, François Cauchy, Jean-Yves Mabrut, Chris Verslype, Laurent Coubeau, Jean Hardwigsen, Emmanuel Boleslawski, Fabrice Muscari, Heithem Jeddou, Denis Pezet, Bruno Heyd, Valerio Lucidi, Karen Geboes, Jan Lerut, Pietro Majno, Lamiae Grimaldi, Francis Levi, Maïté Lewin, Maximiliano Gelli, and Collaborative TransMet group.
• Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery and Transplantation, AP-HP Hôpital Paul-Brousse, University of Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France; Department of Oncology, UPR Chronotherapy, Cancers and Transplantation, Faculty of Medicine, University of Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France. Electronic address: rene.adam@aphp.fr.
• Lancet. 2024 Sep 21; 404 (10458): 110711181107-1118.

BackgroundDespite the increasing efficacy of chemotherapy, permanently unresectable colorectal liver metastases are associated with poor long-term survival. We aimed to assess whether liver transplantation plus chemotherapy could improve overall survival.MethodsTransMet was a multicentre, open-label, prospective, randomised controlled trial done in 20 tertiary centres in Europe. Patients aged 18-65 years, with Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance score 0-1, permanently unresectable colorectal liver metastases from resected BRAF-non-mutated colorectal cancer responsive to systemic chemotherapy (≥3 months, ≤3 lines), and no extrahepatic disease, were eligible for enrolment. Patients were randomised (1:1) to liver transplantation plus chemotherapy or chemotherapy alone, using block randomisation. The liver transplantation plus chemotherapy group underwent liver transplantation for 2 months or less after the last chemotherapy cycle. At randomisation, the liver transplantation plus chemotherapy group received a median of 21·0 chemotherapy cycles (IQR 18·0-29·0) versus 17·0 cycles (12·0-24·0) in the chemotherapy alone group, in up to three lines of chemotherapy. During first-line chemotherapy, 64 (68%) of 94 patients had received doublet chemotherapy and 30 (32%) of 94 patients had received triplet regimens; 76 (80%) of 94 patients had targeted therapy. Transplanted patients received tailored immunosuppression (methylprednisolone 10 mg/kg intravenously on day 0; tacrolimus 0·1 mg/kg via gastric tube on day 0, 6-10 ng/mL days 1-14; mycophenolate mofetil 10 mg/kg intravenously day 0 to <2 months and switch to everolimus 5-8 ng/mL), and postoperative chemotherapy, and the chemotherapy group had continued chemotherapy. The primary endpoint was 5-year overall survival analysed in the intention to treat and per-protocol population. Safety events were assessed in the as-treated population. The study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02597348), and accrual is complete.FindingsBetween Feb 18, 2016, and July 5, 2021, 94 patients were randomly assigned and included in the intention-to-treat population, with 47 in the liver transplantation plus chemotherapy group and 47 in the chemotherapy alone group. 11 patients in the liver transplantation plus chemotherapy group and nine patients in the chemotherapy alone group did not receive the assigned treatment; 36 patients and 38 patients in each group, respectively, were included in the per-protocol analysis. Patients had a median age of 54·0 years (IQR 47·0-59·0), and 55 (59%) of 94 patients were male and 39 (41%) were female. Median follow-up was 59·3 months (IQR 42·4-60·2). In the intention-to-treat population, 5-year overall survival was 56·6% (95% CI 43·2-74·1) for liver transplantation plus chemotherapy and 12·6% (5·2-30·1) for chemotherapy alone (HR 0·37 [95% CI 0·21-0·65]; p=0·0003) and 73·3% (95% CI 59·6-90·0) and 9·3% (3·2-26·8), respectively, for the per-protocol population. Serious adverse events occurred in 32 (80%) of 40 patients who underwent liver transplantation (from either group), and 69 serious adverse events were observed in 45 (83%) of 54 patients treated with chemotherapy alone. Three patients in the liver transplantation plus chemotherapy group were retransplanted, one of whom died postoperatively of multi-organ failure.InterpretationIn selected patients with permanently unresectable colorectal liver metastases, liver transplantation plus chemotherapy with organ allocation priority significantly improved survival versus chemotherapy alone. These results support the validation of liver transplantation as a new standard option for patients with permanently unresectable liver-only metastases.FundingFrench National Cancer Institute and Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris.Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

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