A liver transplant is a very complicated undertaking. It involves:

• a period of preparation including awaiting a suitable donor, which may take many months
• a major operation for the transplant itself
• a high risk of often serious complications in the weeks following the surgery
• a need to continue long-term medication to reduce the chances of rejection of the transplanted liver

Because it is such a complex, and sometimes hazardous, procedure liver transplants are usually only offered to people who have life-threatening liver disease, for whom there is no other treatment and where a transplant offers a high chance of a cure.

Unfortunately it is this last point that rules out most people with secondary liver cancer. This is because if a cancer has spread to form secondaries in the liver then very frequently there will be seedlings of tumour elsewhere in the body - even if these are not apparent at the time. It is also possible for the cancer to return in the transplanted liver. This means that even if a transplant was done and was 'successful' then often in the weeks or months that follow other secondaries will appear at other sites in the body.

So a transplant would usually only control the cancer for a relatively short space of time, and this limited benefit would not justify such a major procedure.