The editors of AASLD’s flagships journals, HEPATOLOGY and Liver Transplantation, have organized a comprehensive update on important advances in chronic liver disease for this year’s Hepatology Update: The Year in Review. The three-hour session will be held Saturday, June 2, at DDW^® in Washington, D.C.

Five hepatology experts will provide succinct reviews of treatments and ongoing research in hepatitis C, hepatitis B, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), portal hypertension and the donor pool for liver transplantation.

“We’re interested in leveraging our experts to highlight the best advances over the last year,” said David Cohen, MD, PhD, FAASLD, editor in chief of HEPATOLOGY.

Paul Martin, MD, FAASLD, editor in chief of Liver Transplantation, added: “We believe that, in the course of an afternoon, this session will provide a comprehensive update on the major areas of hepatology. These are areas that are pertinent to clinical practice.”

James F. Trotter, MD, a hepatologist at Baylor Scott & White Liver Consultants of Texas, Dallas, will present a 30-minute lecture titled “The Changing Donor Pool.”

“A consequence of the opioid epidemic is that there are more donors becoming available from high-risk populations, i.e. people who have used drugs. It’s important for practitioners to be aware of that,” said Dr. Martin, chief of the divisions of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Miami Health System, FL.

Dr. Cohen noted that some transplant centers have embraced organs from high-risk populations with good results.

“It’s of interest to bring awareness of how to use organs that might not have been classified as high quality previously in ways where they’re better managed, better preserved and transplanted despite prior hesitation,” said Dr. Cohen, chief of the division of gastroenterology & hepatology and the Vincent Astor Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY.

Also during the session, Marc G. Ghany, MD, FAASLD, clinical tenure track investigator in the liver disease branch at the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, MD, will review hepatitis C developments. And Daryl Lau, MD, MPH, FAASLD, associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, will discuss hepatitis B treatment and research.

“We’re at a very interesting time in the evolution of the diagnosis and management of hepatitis C because we’re now at the point where almost all scenarios of hepatitis C can be managed with direct-acting antivirals,” said Dr. Cohen.

But a cure for hepatitis B is still elusive, he added. “We need to better understand the molecular interactions between hepatitis B in hepatocellular carcinoma,” he explained.

Kathleen E. Corey, MD, MPH, MMSc, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Fatty Liver Clinic in the gastrointestinal unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, will examine the latest developments in the treatment of NAFLD. She will review the several therapies that are advancing through clinical trials and discuss when these therapies may be available and how they’ll fit into the management of NAFLD.

The session’s final presenter, Sumeet K. Asrani, MD, another hepatologist at Baylor Scott & White Liver Consultants of Texas, will review emerging anti-fibrotic drugs for portal hypertension.

“Are there new agents? Are there new approaches? Where does TIPS (transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt) therapy fit into the management of complications of portal hypertension? These are all the areas that have been very active in the literature,” Dr. Cohen said.

The session will conclude with a panel discussion, offering attendees an opportunity to interact with the presenters.