The Role of Visceral Transplantation for Neoplastic Disease

Visceral transplantation has been utilized as the most radical surgical treatment for neoplasms not amenable to conventional resection. The main indications for this procedure include mesenteric desmoid tumors threatening the root of mesentery and metastatic neuroendocrine neoplasms. Published case-series of visceral transplantation for such indications are reviewed in this article. Patients with desmoid tumors associated with familial adenomatous polyposis are transplanted with intestinal or multivisceral allografts. With surgical modification of technique, the native spleen is preserved while duodenopancreatic complex is removed to obviate the risk of malignant transformation of duodenal polyposis after transplantation. Preservation of spleen decreased incidence of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, conferring therapeutic advantage. Patient survival is comparable to that of other indications, and desmoid tumor recurrence has been observed in the recipient tissue but not in the donor allograft. For visceral transplantation of metastatic neuroendocrine neoplasms, the majority of these patients have diffuse liver involvement, thus requiring full multivisceral transplantation. Post-transplant patient survival is acceptable with limited data available on recurrence. Autotransplantation following ex vivo tumor resection using visceral allografts has been also performed in a limited, select cohort of patients with various pathologies. Adenocarcinomas are associated with a prohibitive recurrence rate following the procedure, and its use for this indication is therefore not recommended. A national database of visceral transplantation undertaken for neoplastic disease should be developed to better understand predictors of outcomes and to help produce and standardize selection criteria.