Medical experts discuss immunotherapy and immunosuppression in liver transplant care

At The Liver Meeting 2026, medical experts addressed evolving strategies for managing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and long-term care for liver transplant recipients.

Dr. Neil Mehta of the University of California, San Francisco, and Dr. Laura Kulik of Northwestern Medicine discussed the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) to bridge and downstage HCC patients awaiting transplantation. The discussion focused on patient selection, tumor burden, and the potential need for a washout period of approximately two months before surgery to manage rejection risks.

Separately, Dr. Timucin Taner of the Mayo Clinic addressed the challenges of long-term immunosuppression. As 20-year survival rates for liver transplant recipients now exceed 50 percent, clinicians are increasingly concerned with the metabolic complications, infection risks, and cancer risks associated with prolonged immunosuppression. Dr. Taner noted that while complete withdrawal of immunosuppression should primarily occur in controlled trial settings, reducing dosage levels is a strategy that most patients may benefit from after the first post-transplant year.