Ask EASL: podcast on COVID-19 vaccination in patients with liver disease • Ask EASL is an ongoing series of educational podcasts dedicated to answering questions from patients and patient organisations on important topics around liver disease. In this episode, Professor Markus Cornberg is joined by Dr Christiane Eberhardt and Professor Daniel Shouval to answer a range of questions raised by EASL’s Patient Synergies regarding the recently approved COVID-19 vaccinations. They address topics including the reasons for the rapid development of the vaccines, whether immunocompromised liver transplant patients should receive the vaccine, real-world data from vaccination programmes worldwide and the potential duration of immunity.  

ILC 2021 Takeaways – Public health • As part of the International Liver Congress (ILC) 2021, the EASL Takeaways take a look at key topics from the congress, with leading experts discussing the most impactful science and putting it into perspective. This session, presented by Professors Maria Buti, Shira Zelber-Sagi and Antonio Craxì, explores prominent themes from ILC 2021 on the topic of public health. Professor Zelber-Sagi takes the panel through the importance of public health policies in tackling obesity, particularly in populations with low socioeconomic status. They examine the associations between food insecurity and all-cause mortality in adults with liver disease, between parental pre-pregnancy BMI and offspring NAFLD, and between obesity and loss to follow-up in cirrhotic populations. The panel then reviews the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on liver care, as well as the effect of liver disease on COVID-19 mortality. Finally, Professor Craxì discusses residual mortality in HBV carriers and the effects of HBV vaccines on liver cancer prevention.

EASL Patient Synergies Roundtable Discussion: Improving the Lives of Liver Cancer Patients • Description For Digital Liver Cancer Summit 2021, 5-6 February, and on the occasion of World Cancer Day, 4 February, EASL held a discussion aiming to identify the needs of liver cancer patients and their families, and the best ways to accompany them. The Roundtable Discussion was an open interaction between scientists, patient representatives, and nurses on three topics identified by the EASL-affiliated patient associations of EASL Patient Synergies.   Programme and learning objectives Session 1: Early diagnosis and risk factors of liver cancer Understand the importance of information, early diagnosis and prevention measurements, such as vaccination Learn more about the key recent accomplishments in the early detection of HCC Apprehend the challenges encountered with early detection of HCC Session 2: COVID-19 challenges and liver cancer care What improvements in patient support and promotion of connectedness have taken place during COVID for people living with a liver cancer diagnosis and how can we continue to provide these benefits moving forward? What kind of impact will this situation have on cancer patients? Session 3: The inequality of the burden of cancer in different European countries Present the inequality of cancer burden in different European countries, linking this to their causes (prevention and survival) Understand the differences in cancer survival (diagnosis and access to treatment)   Faculty Maria Reig, BCLC group, Liver Unit, Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, University of Barcelona, IDIBAPS, CIBERehd, Spain Pierre Nahon, Paris-Seine-Saint-Denis Hospital, France Isabelle Soerjomataram, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), France   Session 1: Early diagnosis and risk factors of liver cancer