EASL Takeaways returns for a retrospective look at the most impactful science presented at the Digital Liver Cancer Summit 2021, with leading experts putting the latest developments in perspective. Professor Helen Reeves chaired the discussions and was joined by Professor Jordi Bruix, Professor Chiara Braconi and Dr Jean-Charles Nault. Professor Bruix opened by summarising the breakthroughs in systemic therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and their overall implications for clinical management, with a particular focus on the results of the IMbrave study. Professor Braconi then provided her perspective on recent advances in cholangiocarcinoma, from clinical to translational research, and discussed the relative lack of progress in immunotherapy for this condition. She also revisited the exciting preclinical data presented at the meeting, including from 3D organoids and co-culture techniques, and discussed the prospect of translating these to the clinic. Finally, Dr Nault reviewed pre-clinical models related to HCC, including the identification of subtype-specific treatment responses and the immune-mediated surveillance of premalignant hepatocytes.

 

Biographies

Helen Reeves Helen Reeves is a Professor of Liver Cancer at the Newcastle University Centre for Cancer and the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She is also a scientific committee member for the European Association for Study of the Liver (EASL) and is an active member of the EASL Education Committee and the HCC-UK Committee. Her main research focus and expertise is on HCC in patients with fatty liver disease and on the development of clinically relevant biomarkers.
Chiara Braconi Chiara Braconi is the Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Associate Professor at the University of Glasgow, UK, and holds an honorary contract as a consultant medical oncologist at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre. Her research is focused on hepato-pancreatico-biliary tumours and she has developed a research platform on biliary cancers at the Institute of Cancer Sciences at the University of Glasgow. She currently works within national and international consortia including the European Network for the Study of Cholangiocarcinoma, COST-action 18122, and Cholangiocarcinoma-UK to support a collaborative international research programme in biliary cancers.
Jordi Bruix Jordi Bruix is Professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona, Spain and Director of the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer Group. He is also the founder of the International Liver Cancer Association. Professor Bruix has been Principal Investigator of studies and clinical trials that have changed practice in the field of hepatocellular carcinoma, including the development of diagnostic criteria and prognostic models, and establishing chemoembolization, sorafenib and regorafenib as conventional therapy. Professor Bruix has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts and evidence-based practice guidelines for hepatocellular carcinoma.
Jean-Charles Nault Jean-Charles Nault works on the liver unit of the Avicenne Hospital in Bobigny, France where he places a high priority on the early detection of primary liver tumours and on therapeutic innovation. He is also an active member of the laboratory of “functional genomics of solid tumours” at the INSERM UMR 1138 unit at Cordeliers Research Center, Paris, France. Dr Nault’s research focuses on the identification of new driver genes in hepatocellular adenoma and carcinoma, new therapeutic targets, and the molecular determinants of prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

 

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