Liver/Biliary Disorders News

LAS VEGAS — No safety and efficacy concerns for COVID-19 messenger RNA vaccines were noted among patients with cirrhosis compared with the general population, according to a presentation at the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting.

Waiting list registrations and deceased donor liver transplantations for alcoholic hepatitis increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with earlier trends, according to data published in JAMA Network Open.

LAS VEGAS – In this video exclusive, Donna Cryer, JD, founder, president and CEO Global Liver Institute, spoke on the launch of the Liver Health Annual Trends Report and its possible impact for patients with chronic liver disease.

LAS VEGAS – In this video exclusive from the ACG Scientific Annual Meeting, Amit Singal, MD, from UT Southwestern Medical Center, discussed best practices for the screening, surveillance, and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

This month’s cover story highlights the growing burden of hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of primary liver cancer, in the United States. Despite being a cancer that does not typically receive much attention, HCC is projected to become the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States by 2040 if current trends continue. Its increasing mortality is related to a growing number of cases in the setting of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, the liver manifestation of the metabolic syndrome, and a high proportion of HCC cases being detected at a late stage. While patients detected at an early stage are amenable to curative therapies such as liver transplantation and have a median survival exceeding 5 years, those diagnosed at a late stage traditionally have had limited therapeutic options and a median survival of only 1 year.

Liver cancer — the fastest-growing cause of cancer death in the U.S. — has been notoriously difficult to treat.

Lean and non-lean patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease were similar metabolically and had common risk factors, according to findings published in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Open.

Predicted severe acute biliary pancreatitis treated with early endoscopic retrograde cholangiography with sphincterotomy did not reduce major complications or mortality compared with conservative treatment, according to a presenter.

Severe transplant-related maternal complication and offspring prematurity may occur at a higher proportion after liver transplant vs. the general population, but overall outcomes are positive, researchers reported at UEG Week Virtual.

Waist circumference independently correlated with the risk for advanced fibrosis among patients with type 2 diabetes, according to a presenter at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes Annual Meeting.