Figure 1.

The Markov decision analytic model. Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) could undergo one of three therapies including primary orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), hepatic resection or locoregional therapy with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) followed by salvage OLT. A 10-year time horizon was used in this model with Markov transition states including survival, death, survival with recurrence, and wait list or salvage transplantation (for locoregional and hepatic resection strategies only)