Researchers in Beijing reported that soluble PD-1 (sPD-1) measured the day before liver transplantation can flag recurrence risk in patients who received immune checkpoint inhibitors before surgery. The study, published in Frontiers in Oncology, analyzed pre-transplant plasma sPD-1 and soluble PD-L1 in 105 liver transplant recipients with hepatocellular carcinoma. In the subgroup treated with checkpoint inhibitors, recurrence-free and recurrence events separated by sPD-1 levels, while soluble PD-L1 did not show the same separation. Patients with higher sPD-1 concentrations were more likely to experience cancer return after transplantation. For transplant oncology programs, the work suggests a potentially actionable blood biomarker for preoperative risk stratification as immunotherapy bridging or downstaging becomes more common.