Liver transplantation in New Orleans: parity in a world of disparity?

Imaging Delay Following Liver-Directed Therapy Increases Progression Risk in Early- to Intermediate-Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the world. Patients with early-stage HCC are treated with liver-directed therapies to bridge or downstage for liver transplantation (LT). In this study, the impact of HCC care delay on HCC progression among early-stage patients was investigated. Early-stage HCC patients undergoing their first cycle of liver-directed therapy (LDT) for bridge/downstaging to LT between 04/2016 and 04/2022 were retrospectively analyzed. Baseline variables were analyzed for risk of disease progression and time to progression (TTP). HCC care delay was determined by the number of rescheduled appointments related to HCC care. The study cohort consisted of 316 patients who received first-cycle LDT. The HCC care no-show rate was associated with TTP (p = 0.004), while the overall no-show rate was not (p = 0.242). The HCC care no-show rate and HCC care delay were further expanded as no-show rates and rescheduled appointments for imaging, laboratory, and office visits, respectively. More than 60% of patients experienced HCC care delay for imaging and laboratory appointments compared to just 8% for office visits. Multivariate analysis revealed that HCC-specific no-show rates and HCC care delay for imaging (p < 0.001) were both independently associated with TTP, highlighting the importance of minimizing delays in early-stage HCC imaging surveillance to reduce disease progression risk.

A scoping review of inequities in access to organ transplant in the United States

Background

Organ transplant is the preferred treatment for end-stage organ disease, yet the majority of patients with end-stage organ disease are never placed on the transplant waiting list. Limited access to the transplant waiting list combined with the scarcity of the organ pool result in over 100,000 deaths annually in the United States. Patients face unique barriers to referral and acceptance for organ transplant based on social determinants of health, and patients from disenfranchised groups suffer from disproportionately lower rates of transplantation. Our objective was to review the literature describing disparities in access to organ transplantation based on social determinants of health to integrate the existing knowledge and guide future research.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review of the literature reporting disparities in access to heart, lung, liver, pancreas and kidney transplantation based on social determinants of health (race, income, education, geography, insurance status, health literacy and engagement). Included studies were categorized based on steps along the transplant care continuum: referral for transplant, transplant evaluation and selection, living donor identification/evaluation, and waitlist outcomes.

Results

Our search generated 16,643 studies, of which 227 were included in our final review. Of these, 34 focused on disparities in referral for transplantation among patients with chronic organ disease, 82 on transplant selection processes, 50 on living donors, and 61 on waitlist management. In total, 15 studies involved the thoracic organs (heart, lung), 209 involved the abdominal organs (kidney, liver, pancreas), and three involved multiple organs. Racial and ethnic minorities, women, and patients in lower socioeconomic status groups were less likely to be referred, evaluated, and added to the waiting list for organ transplant. The quality of the data describing these disparities across the transplant literature was variable and overwhelmingly focused on kidney transplant.

Conclusions

This review contextualizes the quality of the data, identifies seminal work by organ, and reports gaps in the literature where future research on disparities in organ transplantation should focus. Future work should investigate the association of social determinants of health with access to the organ transplant waiting list, with a focus on prospective analyses that assess interventions to improve health equity.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12939-021-01616-x.

Race and Gender Disparity in the Surgical Management of Hepatocellular Cancer: Analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program Registry

BACKGROUND

The existence of race and gender disparity has been described in numerous areas of medicine. The management of hepatocellular cancer is no different, but in no other area of medicine, is the treatment algorithm more complicated by local, regional, and national health care distribution policy.

METHODS

Multivariate logistic regression and Cox-regression were utilized to analyze the treatment of patients with hepatocellular cancer registered in SEER between 1999 and 2013 to determine the incidence and effects of racial and gender disparity. Odd ratios (OR) are relative to Caucasian males, SEER region, and tumor characteristics.

RESULTS

The analysis of 57,449 patients identified the minority were female (25.31%) and African-American (16.26%). All tumor interventions were protective (p < 0.001) with respect to survival. The mean survival for all registered patients was 13.01 months with conditional analysis, confirming that African-American men were less likely to undergo ablation, resection, or transplantation (p < 0.001). Women were more likely to undergo resection (p < 0.001). African-American women had an equivalent OR for resection but had a significantly lower transplant rate (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Utilizing SEER data as a surrogate for patient navigation in the treatment of hepatocellular cancer, our study identified not only race but gender bias with African-American women suffering the greatest. This is underscored by the lack of navigation of African-Americans to any therapy and a significant bias to navigate female patients to resection potentially limiting subsequent access to definitive therapy namely transplantation.

Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Access and Outcomes of Simultaneous Liver-Kidney Transplant Among Liver Transplant Candidates With Renal Dysfunction in the United States

BACKGROUND

Since the Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) allocation system was implemented, the proportion of simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation (SLKT) has increased significantly. However, whether racial/ethnic disparities exist in access to SLKT and post-SLKT survival remains understudied.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort of patients aged ≥18 years with renal dysfunction on the liver transplant (LT) waiting list was obtained from Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Renal dysfunction was defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m at listing for LT. Multilevel time-to-competing-events regression adjusting for center effect was used to examine the likelihood of receiving SLKT. Inverse probability of treatment weighted survival analyses were used to analyze posttransplant mortality outcomes.

RESULTS

For patients with renal dysfunction at listing for LT, not listed for simultaneous kidney transplant, non-Hispanic black (NHB) and Hispanic patients were more likely to receive SLKT than non-Hispanic white (NHW) patients (NHB: multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 2.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.42-4.65; Hispanic: aHR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.14-3.60). For post-SLKT outcomes, compared to NHW patients, NHB patients had a lower mortality risk before 24 months (aHR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.65-0.97) but had a higher mortality risk (aHR, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.59-2.55) afterward; in contrast, Hispanic patients had a lower overall mortality risk than NHW patients (aHR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.51-0.74).

CONCLUSIONS

In the MELD era, racial/ethnic differences exist in access and survival of SLKT for patients with renal dysfunction at listing for LT. Future studies are warranted to examine whether these differences remain in the post-SLK allocation policy era.