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The likelihood for a successful outcome is increased if liver transplantation is performed within 6-months following diagnosis of liver cancer. Unfortunately, due to the shortage of cadaveric donors, many patients with liver cancer have to wait up to 12-months or longer before a donor liver can be found. It has been estimated that in the United States about 18,000 patients are waiting for a cadaveric liver donor transplant, whereas, the actual number of donors available is only about 5,000. Since 1998, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) has established a priority scoring system for allocating cadaveric livers to patients with liver cancer based on the severity of their liver disease. More information about UNOS can be found at http://www.unos.org/.

In order to prevent further progression of the tumor for those patients who are awaiting a liver transplant, a variety of palliative treatments may be used including radiofrequency ablation, percutaneous ethanol injection, and chemotherapy.

Living donor liver transplantation, as an alternative to cadaveric liver transplants, is currently being explored as a treatment option at some transplant centers around the world. In this procedure, a portion of a living donor's healthy liver is surgically removed and is transplanted into the recipient whose diseased liver has been removed by a complete hepatectomy. Currently, only about 3,000 living donor liver transplants have been performed worldwide and the long-term impact on survival has not yet been well established.