For early HCC that is technically within transplant criteria, what patient- or tumor-related features (e.g., AFP behavior, frailty, rising MELD, multifocality) lead you to stop pursuing liver transplantation as the preferred strategy and instead recommend resection/ablation with surveillance?

My approach is the following: if there is a solitary tumor < 2-3 cm (BCLC A) in a favorable location, consider ablation (MWA) IF the patient has no other benefits to get to transplant (i.e., no clinically significant portal HTN). If the patient has no portal HTN and has BCLC A or good B (unilobar) a...