The future of medicine is the implementation of personalised medicine
or precision medicine. In order to achieve this goal, diagnostic and
prognostic biomarkers are needed. This is an example of a new
unchallenged biomarker that could introduce precision medicine in the
care of patients after liver transplantation. In the first year after liver
transplantation 10% of transplanted livers will fail and require
retransplantation. Evaluating a patient for retransplantation is a difficult
clinical decision. Performing an unnecessary transplantation will expose
a patient to avoidable risk and surgery and delay his recovery.
Furthermore, a donor organ will be used that could save the life of
another patient. On the other hand, if the transplantation is delayed, the
general condition of the patient will decline, increasing the risk of
surgery and affecting outcome. Furthermore, it generates a loss of
quality of life for this patient as he will endure many difficult weeks in
the hospital to receive a transplant anyway.
If we can predict correctly the need for early liver transplantation we will
increase patient outcome, increase quality of life and proceed to a
better use of available donor organs. Moreover, this strategy is probably
cost-saving as voiding unnecessary transplantations and reducing length
of stay in the hospital will lead to a cost reduction for the healthcare
system.
This is exactly the question that the GlycoTransplantTest can answer.
Scientific objectives
- perform a multicentric validation of the GlycoTransplantatest in order
to provide to reliable prognostication for graft failure within 3 months
after liver transplantation, leading to numerous advantages as described
before
- develop and provide a platform for clinical analysis of the
GlycoTransplantTest for Flemish Transplant Recipients
- perform a cost-effectiveniss study for the GlycoTransplantTest