Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant Program

The Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant Program comprises liver experts from both Mass General and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, offering greater access to a larger team of clinicians at multiple health care facilities across New England.

877-716-8440

About the Program

Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have a rich history in performing and pioneering organ transplant procedures, and our transplant programs are among the longest-standing and most well-regarded in the country. In 1954, the very first successful organ transplant in the world was performed at Brigham and, in the years that followed, both institutions led a series of groundbreaking transplant firsts. Since 1988, Mass General has been at the forefront of liver transplant, performing more than 1,000 liver transplants to date, making it the most experienced liver program in New England.

In 2021, Mass General and Brigham united to develop the joint Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant Program. The goal of this collaboration was to expand care options to our patients and combine the extensive liver care and organ transplant knowledge of our two institutions. Our liver transplant team—made up of medical and surgical doctors from the two highest-rated hospitals in New England—provides complete treatment, transplant and management options for patients with acute or chronic liver disease, as well as patients with liver cancer.

Expanded Care at Mass General & Brigham

The Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant Program is comprised of both Mass General and Brigham clinicians. Through this collaboration, you have the option to be seen by doctors at either of the Boston locations for:

• Evaluation, which can also be completed at an outreach evaluation clinic
• Navigation of the transplant waitlist
• Post-transplant care

Surgical care will be solely performed at Mass General. Once you start your care at either Mass General or Brigham, your ongoing liver disease management will be maintained at that same institution.

Benefits of Multi-institutional Care

The Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant Program offers you the opportunity to receive expert care from a broader team of clinicians and additional locations for evaluation. The Mass General Brigham liver transplant team collaborates very closely for every patient, so you will always benefit from the expertise of a network of providers from across the Mass General Brigham system, regardless of the location where you receive care.

Opportunity for Evaluation at Outreach Clinics

Patients who are seeking initial evaluation for liver care, but do not want to travel to Boston, can be seen by members of the transplant team at one of the three Mass General Brigham liver outreach evaluation clinics. These clinics are located at:

• Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, MA
• Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth, NH
• Mass General at University Gastroenterology in East Greenwich, RI

Transplant Evaluation Process

At all of the locations where we offer transplant evaluation—Mass General, Brigham or our outreach clinics—you will receive integrated, comprehensive care, beginning with a careful assessment and discussion to ensure that transplantation is the best treatment option for you. You will work with a transplant coordinator, who participates in the initial evaluation, gathers medical information and previous test results, and manages your full treatment plan, which includes:

• Medical diagnosis
• Patient education and review of care options
• Surgical and psychosocial evaluation
• Other transplant-specific testing

To begin the liver transplant process, you or your physician should contact the Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant Program at 877-716-8440. You will be asked to provide your medical records. Once received, a liver transplant nurse coordinator and a transplant hepatologist will review your referral and medical records. Following this review, the Mass General Brigham transplant staff will then schedule an initial evaluation appointment.

Depending on the number of tests required for your case, the length of the evaluation process can vary. Our goal is to complete all testing within one month, except for patients in need of emergency transplantation, who are tested immediately upon hospital admission.

Waiting List

If you are found to be a good candidate for liver transplantation, you will be placed on the Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant waiting list managed by the UNOS. UNOS is contracted by the federal government to manage the nation's organ transplant system.

Because there are many more people who need a liver transplant than there are deceased donor livers available, UNOS will rank you based on how sick you are, as measured by your Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. Certain patients are eligible for additional MELD points (called “exception points”) from UNOS, based on their disease. For example, patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) or hepatopulmonary syndrome (a lung condition caused by liver disease) may be eligible for additional MELD points.

Due to an inadequate supply of donor organs, many patients are very ill by the time they reach the top of the waiting list. However, there is a spectrum of quality of donor livers, some of which may not be taken by patients at the top of the list, but which might be appropriate for patients further down the list. Living donor liver transplantation is another option to expedite transplantation. For more information, please contact your transplant coordinator to make an appointment to discuss these options.

When a donor organ is available, you will receive a call from your coordinator or surgeon asking you to come into the hospital for the transplant. Since this call can come at any time during the day or night, any day of the week, it is important for the transplant team to be able to reach you promptly. You should provide our center with all of your phone numbers, as well as the phone numbers of a few emergency contacts, so that we can contact you when needed.

Collaboration with Liver and Cancer Centers

Specialists in the Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant Program work closely with their medical, surgical and oncological colleagues to ensure comprehensive and personalized treatment. This collaboration allows patients with liver disease and cancer to receive coordinated care that includes the most advanced diagnostic and treatment options. Many patients with liver cancer are eligible for liver transplantation, but our surgeons will consider all options, including traditional open surgery and minimally invasive removal of the portion of the liver containing the tumors.

Shortly after being diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, Martin's doctors discovered he also had liver cancer. They predicted that within two to three years, it would become terminal. He was referred to the multidisciplinary Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant Program. Today, Martin is thriving after receiving successful transplant and cancer care. Read Martin's story.

Living Donor Program

The Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant Program has an active living donor liver transplant program. Through living donor liver transplantation, a family member or friend donates a portion of their liver, allowing patients to receive a transplant sooner by shortening the waiting period compared to that of receiving an organ from a deceased donor. The donor’s healthy liver grows back to full size within a few weeks.

Donating a portion of your liver to another individual is a wonderful act of selfless generosity that can be lifesaving for the recipient. A live donor liver transplant requires complex surgery for both the donor and the recipient. In order to effectively plan for the surgery and ensure the best possible outcomes, our team evaluates living donors in a three-part process. Potential donors may choose to discontinue their evaluation at any point in the process, for any reason, with complete confidentiality. Typically, the recipient's insurance will cover the cost of the evaluation and surgery.

Our Research

The Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant Program offers highly advanced treatments through innovative clinical trials. Current trials include those that seek to:

• Develop the use of new organ preservation technologies that result in better post-transplant liver function and fewer complications
• Improve transplantation of livers infected with hepatitis C
• Eliminate the need for post-transplant immunosuppression
• Provide transplantation of livers from HIV positive donors to HIV positive recipients

All of the following research trials are open and available for patients in the Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant Program.

Our Team and Contact Information

The Mass General Brigham Liver Transplant team is a multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, case managers, financial coordinators and other clinicians who guide patients through every stage of care and help them navigate every element of the transplant journey as smoothly and with as much support as possible.