Biography
In his research, Yao is interested in liver cancer treatment, particularly as related to liver transplants. He has contributed to important publications in this area. His other research interests include hepatitis B infection and outcomes for patients undergoing liver transplantation.
Education
Institution | Degree | Dept or School | End Date |
---|---|---|---|
Stanford Hospital and Clinics | Fellowship | Gastroenterology | 1993 |
Stanford Hospital and Clinics | Residency | Internal Medicine | 1990 |
Albert Einstein College of Medicine | 1987 |
Board Certifications
1995 American Board of Internal Medicine - ABIM 147033 (Re-certification 2008)
1997 American Board of Gastroenterology - ABIM 147033
Clinical Expertise
Cirrhosis
Esophageal Cancer
Liver Transplantation
Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis C
Hepatocellular Carcinoma (Liver Cancer)
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)
Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)
Live Donor Liver Transplantation
Gastric (Stomach) Cancer
Program Affiliations
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
UCSF Liver Transplant Program
UCSF Liver Center
In the News
Research Interests
Liver Injury and Repair
Liver transplantation outcomes including expanded criteria liver transplants
Loco-regional therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatitis in Asians
Publications
- AFP-L3 and DCP strongly predict early hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after liver transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- Downstaging hepatocellular carcinoma before liver transplantation: A multicenter analysis of the "all-comers" protocol in the Multicenter Evaluation of Reduction in Tumor Size before Liver Transplantation (MERITS-LT) consortium.| | View in PubMed
- Refining the approach to down-staging of HCC prior to liver transplantation: Patient selection, loco-regional treatments, and systemic therapies.| | View in PubMed
- AFP-L3 and DCP are superior to AFP in predicting waitlist dropout in HCC patients: Results of a prospective study.| | View in PubMed
- Alpha-fetoprotein slope over 7.5 ng/ml over 3 months before liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma predicts recurrence even after controlling for alpha-fetoprotein at liver transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- National Experience on Waitlist Outcomes for Down-Staging of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: High Dropout Rate in All-Comers.| | View in PubMed
- National experience with living donor liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Lower Alpha-Fetoprotein Threshold of 500 ng/mL for Liver Transplantation May Improve Posttransplant Outcomes in Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- The Impact of Median Model for End-Stage Liver Disease at Transplant Minus 3 National Policy on Waitlist Outcomes in Patients With and Without Hepatocellular Carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Review of Liver Transplantation in Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Sex-based Disparities in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Recurrence After Liver Transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- Liver Transplantation After Downstaging of Hepatocellular Carcinoma With Portal Vein Tumor Thrombus Using Yttrium-90 Radioembolization: Pipe Dream or Reality?| | View in PubMed
- Downstaging Outcomes for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Results From the Multicenter Evaluation of Reduction in Tumor Size before Liver Transplantation (MERITS-LT) Consortium.| | View in PubMed
- Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio Predicts High-Risk Explant Features and Waitlist Survival But Is Not Independently Associated With Recurrence or Survival Following Liver Transplantation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Hepatic Toxicity After Selective Chemoembolization Is Associated With Decreased Survival Among Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Disseminated Legionella micdadei infection in a liver transplant patient presenting as pulmonary nodules and a laryngeal lesion.| | View in PubMed
- DCP and AFP-L3 Are Complementary to AFP in Predicting High-Risk Explant Features: Results of a Prospective Study.| | View in PubMed
- The Key Role of Staging Definitions for Assessment of Downstaging for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Reply.| | View in PubMed
- A novel waitlist dropout score for hepatocellular carcinoma - identifying a threshold that predicts worse post-transplant survival.| | View in PubMed
- CON: Portal Vein Thrombosis Does Not Impact Liver Transplantation Outcomes.| | View in PubMed
- COVID-19 and Abdominal Transplant: A Stepwise Approach to Practice During Pandemic Conditions.| | View in PubMed
- Hepatocellular Carcinoma Demonstrates Heterogeneous Growth Patterns in a Multicenter Cohort of Patients With Cirrhosis.| | View in PubMed
- Surveillance for HCC After Liver Transplantation: Increased Monitoring May Yield Aggressive Treatment Options and Improved Postrecurrence Survival.| | View in PubMed
- Effect of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Metabolic Risk Factors on Waitlist Outcomes in Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Donation After Circulatory Death Is Associated With Similar Posttransplant Survival in All but the Highest-Risk Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients.| | View in PubMed
- Bacchus Listed for a Liver Transplant: Comment.| | View in PubMed
- Liver Transplantation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Working Group Report from the ILTS Transplant Oncology Consensus Conference.| | View in PubMed
- Unfair Advantages for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Listed for Liver Transplant in Short-Wait Regions Following 2015 Hepatocellular Carcinoma Policy Change.| | View in PubMed
- Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: Management after the transplant.| | View in PubMed
- National Experience on Down-Staging of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Before Liver Transplant: Influence of Tumor Burden, Alpha-Fetoprotein, and Wait Time.| | View in PubMed
- REPLY.| | View in PubMed
- Comparison of Liver Transplant Wait-List Outcomes Among Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma With Public vs Private Medical Insurance.| | View in PubMed
- Prospective Phase II trial of drug-eluting bead chemoembolization for liver transplant candidates with hepatocellular carcinoma and marginal hepatic reserve.| | View in PubMed
- Noninvasive estimation of pulmonary vascular resistance improves portopulmonary hypertension screening in liver transplant candidates.| | View in PubMed
- Are There Upper Limits in Tumor Burden for Down-Staging of Hepatocellular Carcinoma to Liver Transplant? Analysis of the All-Comers Protocol.| | View in PubMed
- Predictors of low risk for dropout from the liver transplant waiting list for hepatocellular carcinoma in long wait time regions: Implications for organ allocation.| | View in PubMed
- What Are the Optimal Liver Transplantation Criteria for Hepatocellular Carcinoma?| | View in PubMed
- Alpha-Fetoprotein Decrease from > 1,000 to < 500 ng/mL in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma Leads to Improved Posttransplant Outcomes.| | View in PubMed
- Distinguishing Tumor From Bland Portal Vein Thrombus in Liver Transplant Candidates With Hepatocellular Carcinoma: the A-VENA Criteria.| | View in PubMed
- The mRECIST Classification Provides Insight into Tumor Biology for Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma Awaiting Liver Transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- Screening for Hepatocellular Carcinoma to Improve Cancer-Related Mortality: Looking Behind When We Should Be Looking Ahead.| | View in PubMed
- Multicenter validation of a score to predict prognosis after the development of HCC recurrence following liver transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- Increasing Liver Transplantation Wait-List Dropout for Hepatocellular Carcinoma With Widening Geographical Disparities: Implications for Organ Allocation.| | View in PubMed
- Predictors of Ultrasound Failure to Detect Hepatocellular Carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Direct-acting antivirals do not increase the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after local-regional therapy or liver transplant waitlist dropout.| | View in PubMed
- Alpha-Fetoprotein Slope >7.5 ng/mL per Month Predicts Microvascular Invasion and Tumor Recurrence After Liver Transplantation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- History of Marijuana Use Does Not Affect Outcomes on the Liver Transplant Waitlist.| | View in PubMed
- Living donor liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: To expand (beyond Milan) or downstage (to Milan)?| | View in PubMed
- Validation of the prognostic power of the RETREAT score for hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence using the UNOS database.| | View in PubMed
- Con: Treating hepatitis C virus With direct-acting antivirals: Fear not the perceived threat of hepatocellular carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Excellent Outcomes of Liver Transplantation Following Down-Staging of Hepatocellular Carcinoma to Within Milan Criteria: A Multicenter Study.| | View in PubMed
- Misdiagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients receiving no local-regional therapy prior to liver transplant: An analysis of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network explant pathology form.| | View in PubMed
- Wait Time of Less Than 6 and Greater Than 18 Months Predicts Hepatocellular Carcinoma Recurrence After Liver Transplantation: Proposing a Wait Time "Sweet Spot".| | View in PubMed
- Liver transplantation recipients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis have lower risk hepatocellular carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Validation of a Risk Estimation of Tumor Recurrence After Transplant (RETREAT) Score for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Recurrence After Liver Transplant.| | View in PubMed
- Transarterial Radioembolization for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Who, When… and Y(90)?| | View in PubMed
- Reply.| | View in PubMed
- Increased hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence in women compared to men with high alpha fetoprotein at liver transplant.| | View in PubMed
- Lack of benefits of mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor in patients transplanted for hepatocellular carcinoma: Is this the end of the story?| | View in PubMed
- Hepatocellular cancer as indication for liver transplantation: pushing beyond Milan.| | View in PubMed
- Nucleos(t)ide analogs reduce the risk of hepatitis B-associated hepatocellular carcinoma: A can't miss proposition?| | View in PubMed
- Intention to treat outcome of T1 hepatocellular carcinoma with the "wait and not ablate" approach until meeting T2 criteria for liver transplant listing.| | View in PubMed
- Minimal Transplant Survival Benefit for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Is it Real or an Overestimation of Waitlist Life Expectancy?| | View in PubMed
- Reassessing the boundaries of liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: Where do we stand with tumor down-staging?| | View in PubMed
- Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: analysis of factors predicting outcome in 1074 patients in OPTN Region 5.| | View in PubMed
- Implications of discordant findings between hepatic angiography and cross-sectional imaging in transplant candidates with hepatocellular carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Circulating tumor cells in hepatocellular carcinoma: a pilot study of detection, enumeration, and next-generation sequencing in cases and controls.| | View in PubMed
- Downstaging of hepatocellular cancer before liver transplant: long-term outcome compared to tumors within Milan criteria.| | View in PubMed
- Potential role of the donor in hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after liver transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- Evaluating the validity of model for end-stage liver disease exception points for hepatocellular carcinoma patients with multiple nodules <2 cm.| | View in PubMed
- Hepatic artery and biliary complications in liver transplant recipients undergoing pretransplant transarterial chemoembolization.| | View in PubMed
- Response to letter to the editors.| | View in PubMed
- Combined effects of recipient age and model for end-stage liver disease score on liver transplantation outcomes.| | View in PubMed
- Restricting liver transplant recipients to younger donors does not increase the wait-list time or the dropout rate: the hepatitis C experience.| | View in PubMed
- Alpha-fetoprotein level > 1000 ng/mL as an exclusion criterion for liver transplantation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma meeting the Milan criteria.| | View in PubMed
- Time to transplantation as a predictor of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after liver transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- Outcomes after liver transplantation for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and a low risk of dropout from the transplant waiting list.| | View in PubMed
- Conundrum of treatment for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma: radiofrequency ablation instead of liver transplantation as the first-line treatment?| | View in PubMed
- Identification of liver transplant candidates with hepatocellular carcinoma and a very low dropout risk: implications for the current organ allocation policy.| | View in PubMed
- Validating posttransplant hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence data in the United Network for Organ Sharing database.| | View in PubMed
- Moving past "One size (and number) fits all" in the selection of candidates with hepatocellular carcinoma for liver transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- Reply: To PMID 23333661.| | View in PubMed
- Factors associated with outcomes and response to therapy in patients with infiltrative hepatocellular carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Morbidity and mortality following transarterial liver chemoembolization in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and synthetic hepatic dysfunction.| | View in PubMed
- Risk factors for liver transplant waitlist dropout in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Imaging predictors of the response to transarterial chemoembolization in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: a radiological-pathological correlation.| | View in PubMed
- Multidisciplinary management of hepatocellular carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Does a patient qualify for liver transplantation after the down-staging of hepatocellular carcinoma?| | View in PubMed
- Do preoperative inflammatory markers impact on outcome after liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma?| | View in PubMed
- Mixed hepatocellular cholangiocarcinoma and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in patients undergoing transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Cost-effectiveness of screening for recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma after liver transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- Hepatocellular carcinoma: Ablate and wait versus rapid transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- Excellent outcome following down-staging of hepatocellular carcinoma prior to liver transplantation: an intention-to-treat analysis.| | View in PubMed
- Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: beyond the Milan criteria.| | View in PubMed
- Current approach to down-staging of hepatocellular carcinoma prior to liver transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Liver transplantation at UCSF--a 20-year experience.| | View in PubMed
- Expanded criteria for liver transplantation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: the hepatitis C quandary.| | View in PubMed
- Should surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma be increased in patients with cirrhosis and small liver nodules?| | View in PubMed
- De novo malignancies following liver transplantation: a case-control study with long-term follow-up.| | View in PubMed
- Expanded criteria for hepatocellular carcinoma: down-staging with a view to liver transplantation--yes.| | View in PubMed
- Selection criteria for liver transplantation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: beyond tumor size and number?| | View in PubMed
- A prospective study on downstaging of hepatocellular carcinoma prior to liver transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- High incidence of recurrence and hematologic events following liver transplantation for Budd-Chiari syndrome.| | View in PubMed
- The impact of pre-operative loco-regional therapy on outcome after liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma.| | View in PubMed
- Cost-effectiveness of hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance in patients with hepatitis C virus-related cirrhosis.| | View in PubMed
- Applying expanded criteria to liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: too much too soon, or is now the time?| | View in PubMed
- Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: lessons from the first year under the Model of End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) organ allocation policy.| | View in PubMed
- Prediction of survival after liver retransplantation for late graft failure based on preoperative prognostic scores.| | View in PubMed
- De novo non-alcoholic fatty liver disease following orthotopic liver transplantation.| | View in PubMed
- A follow-up analysis of the pattern and predictors of dropout from the waiting list for liver transplantation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: implications for the current organ allocation policy.| | View in PubMed
- Dramatic reduction of the alpha-fetoprotein level after lamivudine treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection and cirrhosis.| | View in PubMed