For many patients with severe liver disease liver transplantation is the only access to a comparably normal life. Currently, a prevailing lack of available transplant organs can be noticed. Aiming for more efficiency in the dispensation of the available organs, it is reasonable to transplant them to those patients with the best probability of surviving. Therefore, the aim of the current, retrospective study is to examine, whether specific tumor marker values can serve as prognostic tool for

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... ival after liver transplantation and whether these tumor marker values show a correlation to one of the underlying liver diseases leading to transplantation. Methods: The data of 1662 patients at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin were reviewed and evaluated. Here, the preoperatively determined tumor markers AFP, CEA, CA 19-9, and CA 125 in the serum were analyzed. Based on their aetiology, the patients were divided into five groups: patients with chronic viral hepatitis, patients with diseases of biliary and autoimmune genesis, patients with alcoholic or cryptogenic cirrhosis, patients with HCC, and patients with other liver diseases that led to a liver transplantation. In the first step, it was analyzed whether there is a statistical correlation between tumor marker values and the underlying disease. Afterwards it was examined whether there is a significant correlation between the tumor marker value and the survival probability. Results: Patients with biliary or autoimmune disease showed the best and patients with HCC the worst long-term prognosis and life expectancy. Among the preoperatively determined tumor markers, AFP showed a significance for the survival probability after liver transplantation. Another correlation was found between the tumor marker CEA and the group of patients who were transplanted due to a cryptogenic or alcoholic genesis. For the tumor markers CA 19-9 and CA 125 no evidence of a prognostic significance could be found. Conclusion: The prognostic significance of the analyzed preoperati [...]