UNASSIGNED: : Since its declaration as a global pandemic on March11th 2020, COVID-19 has had a significant effect on solid-organ transplantation. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on Liver transplantation (LT) in United States.
UNASSIGNED: : We retrospectively analyzed the United Network for Organ Sharing database regarding characteristics of donors, adult-LT recipients, and transplant outcomes during early-COVID period (March 11- September 11, 2020) and compared them to pre-COVID period (March 11 - September 11, 2019).
UNASSIGNED: : Overall, 4% fewer LTs were performed during early-COVID period (4107 vs 4277). Compared to pre-COVID period, transplants performed in early-COVID period were associated with: increase in alcoholic liver disease as most common primary diagnosis (1315 vs 1187, P< 0.01), higher MELD score in the recipients (25 vs 23, P<0.01), lower time on wait-list (52 vs 84 days, P<0.01), higher need for hemodialysis at transplant (9.4 vs 11.1%, P=0.012), longer distance from recipient hospital (131 vs 64 miles, P<0.01) and higher donor risk index (1.65 vs 1.55, P<0.01). Early-COVID period saw increase in rejection episodes before discharge (4.6 vs 3.4%, P=0.023) and lower 90-day graft/patient survival (90.2 vs 95.1 %, P<0.01; 92.2 vs 96.5 %, P<0.01). In multivariable cox-regression analysis, early-COVID period was the independent risk factor for graft failure at 90-days post-transplant (Hazard Ratio 1.77, P<0.01).
UNASSIGNED: : During early-COVID period in United States, overall LT decreased, alcoholic liver disease was primary diagnosis for LT, rate of rejection episodes before discharge was higher and 90-days post-transplant graft survival was lower.

A 60-year-old woman with Hepatitis C infection, cirrhosis, recurrent hepatic hydrothorax, and hepatocellular carcinoma was hospitalized with Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). After her initial discharge, she was re-admitted three weeks later with decompensated liver disease. Imaging revealed extensive thrombosis in the portal vein, superior mesenteric vein, splenic vein and bilateral brachial veins. Given the acute onset and extent of the thrombosis, the patient received therapeutic anticoagulation despite elevated prothrombin time/ international normalized ratio, thrombocytopenia and low fibrinogen. Cirrhotic patients with COVID-19 maybe at high risk of thrombosis, which can present with significant hepatic decompensation.

Background/purpose: The prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) is generally poor and hepatectomy is optional for these patients. This study aims to explore the survival benefits of neoadjuvant hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) for resectable HCC with PVTT. Methods: This retrospective study included 120 resectable HCC patients with PVTT who underwent hepatectomy, from January 2017 to January 2021 at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. Of these patients, the overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) of 55 patients who received hepatectomy alone (Surgery group) and 65 patients who received neoadjuvant HAIC followed by hepatectomy (HAIC-Surgery group) were compared. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to develop a model predicting the response to neoadjuvant HAIC. Results: The OS rates for the HAIC-Surgery group at 1, 3, and 5 years were 94.9%, 78%, and 66.4%, respectively, compared with 84.6%, 47.6%, and 37.2% in the Surgery group (p < 0.001). The RFS rates were 88.7%, 56.2%, and 38.6% versus 84.9%, 38.3%, and 22.6% (p = 0.002). The subgroup analysis revealed that the survival benefit of neoadjuvant HAIC was limited to patients who responded to it. The logistic model, consisting of AFP and CRP, that predicted the response to neoadjuvant HAIC performed well, with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.756. Conclusion: Neoadjuvant HAIC followed by hepatectomy is associated with a longer survival outcome than hepatectomy alone for HCC patients with PVTT and the survival benefit is limited to patients who respond to neoadjuvant FOLFOX-HAIC.

UNASSIGNED: The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of adjuvant sorafenib treatment compared with placebo in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent local ablation.
UNASSIGNED: The SORAMIC trial is a randomised controlled trial with diagnostic, local ablation, and palliative sub-study arms. After initial imaging within the diagnostic study, patients were assigned to local ablation or palliative arms. In the local ablation cohort, patients were randomised 1:1 to local ablation + sorafenib vs. local ablation + placebo. The primary endpoint was time-to-recurrence (TTR). Secondary endpoints were local control rate and safety in terms of adverse events and quality-of-life.
UNASSIGNED: The recruitment was terminated prematurely after 104 patients owing to slow recruitment. One patient was excluded because of a technical failure. Fifty-four patients were randomised to local ablation + sorafenib and 49 to local ablation + placebo. Eighty-eight patients who underwent standardised follow-up imaging comprised the per-protocol population. The median TTR was 15.2 months in the sorafenib arm and 16.4 months in the placebo arm (hazard ratio 1.1; 95% CI 0.53-2.2; p = 0.82). Out of 136 lesions ablated within the trial, there was no difference in local recurrence rate between sorafenib (6/69, 8.6%) and placebo groups (5/67, 5.9%; p = 0.792).Overall (92.5% vs. 71.4%, p = 0.008) and drug-related (81.4% vs. 55.1%, p = 0.003) adverse events were more common in the sorafenib arm compared with the placebo arm. Dose reduction because of adverse events were common in the sorafenib arm (79.6% vs. 30.6%, p <0.001).
UNASSIGNED: Adjuvant sorafenib did not improve in TTR or local control rate after local ablation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma within the limitations of an early terminated trial.
UNASSIGNED: Local ablation is the standard of care treatment in patients with early stages of hepatocellular carcinoma, along with surgical therapies. However, there is a risk of disease recurrence during follow-up. Sorafenib, an oral medication, is a routinely used treatment for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. This study found that sorafenib treatment after local ablation in people with early hepatocellular carcinoma did not significantly improve the disease-free period compared with placebo.
UNASSIGNED: EudraCT 2009-012576-27, NCT01126645.

UNASSIGNED: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumours worldwide. Clarification of the somatic mutational landscape of important genes could reveal new therapeutic targets and facilitate individualized therapeutic approaches for HCC patients. The mutation and expression changes in the ARID1A gene in HCC remain controversial.
UNASSIGNED: First, cBioPortal was used to visualize genetic alterations and DNA copy number alterations (CNAs) in ARID1A. The relationships between ARID1A mutation status and HCC patient clinicopathological features and overall survival (OS) were also determined. Then, a meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of ARID1A mutation or expression on the prognosis of HCC patients. Finally, the role of ARID1A in HCC progression was verified by in vitro experiments.
UNASSIGNED: ARID1A mutation was detected in 9.35% (33/353) of sequenced HCC cases, and ARID1A mutation decreased ARID1A mRNA expression. Patients with ARID1A alterations presented worse OS than those without ARID1A alterations. Meta-analysis and human HCC tissue microarray (TMA) analysis revealed that HCC patients with low ARID1A expression had worse OS and relapse-free survival (RFS), and low ARID1A expression was negatively correlated with tumour size. Then, ARID1A gain-of-function and loss-of-function experiments demonstrated the tumour suppressor role of ARID1A in HCC in vitro. In terms of the mechanism, we found that ARID1A could inhibit HCC progression by regulating retinoblastoma-like 1 (RBL1) expression via the JNK/FOXO3 pathway.
UNASSIGNED: ARID1A can be considered a potential prognostic biomarker and candidate therapeutic target for HCC.

The natural history of cirrhosis has usually been conceptualized in the context of progression from compensated cirrhosis to subsequent stages of decompensation. While this unidirectional concept is the most common pathophysiological trajectory, there has been an emerging understanding of a subgroup of patients which undergo recompensation. While literature mostly based on transplant waitlist registries have indicated towards such a population who experience disease regression, the overall literature about this entity remains inexplicit. An effort to generate consensus on defining recompensation has been attempted which comes with its own nuances and limitations. We summarize the available literature on this emerging yet controversial concept of recompensation in cirrhosis and delve into future implications and impact on real-life practice.

UNASSIGNED: Deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) is increasing in India and now constitutes nearly one-third of all liver transplantation procedures performed in the country. There is currently no uniform national system of allocation of deceased donor livers.
UNASSIGNED: A national task force consisting of 19 clinicians involved in liver transplantation from across the country was constituted under the aegis of the Liver Transplantation Society of India to develop a consensus document addressing the above issues using a modified Delphi process of consensus development.
UNASSIGNED: The National Liver Allocation Policy consensus document includes 46 statements covering all aspects of DDLT, including minimum listing criteria, listing for acute liver failure, DDLT wait-list management, system of prioritisation based on clinical urgency for adults and children, guidelines for allocation of paediatric organs and allocation priorities for liver grafts recovered from public sector hospitals.
UNASSIGNED: This document is the first step in the setting up of a nationally consistent policy of deceased donor liver allocation.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major cause of chronic liver disease globally and in India. The already high burden of NAFLD in India is expected to further increase in the future in parallel with the ongoing epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Given the high prevalence of NAFLD in the community, it is crucial to identify those at risk of progressive liver disease to streamline referral and guide proper management. Existing guidelines on NAFLD by various international societies fail to capture the entire landscape of NAFLD in India and are often difficult to incorporate in clinical practice due to fundamental differences in sociocultural aspects and health infrastructure available in India. A lot of progress has been made in the field of NAFLD in the 7 years since the initial position paper by the Indian National Association for the Study of Liver on NAFLD in 2015. Further, the ongoing debate on the nomenclature of NAFLD is creating undue confusion among clinical practitioners. The ensuing comprehensive review provides consensus-based, guidance statements on the nomenclature, diagnosis, and treatment of NAFLD that are practically implementable in the Indian setting.

Metastasis is a major obstacle in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Microtubule-associated protein 4 (MAP4) plays an important role as a coordinator between microtubules and microfilaments. However, the role of MAP4 in HCC migration and epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is unclear. We compared the protein and mRNA levels of MAP4 in human HCC and adjacent normal tissues using western blotting, immunohistochemistry and RT-qPCR. The migration and invasion abilities and the levels of EMT markers (E-Cadherin, N-Cadherin, Vimentin, and Snail) were compared between MAP4-knockdown and MAP4-overexpressed HCC cells. Finally, we examined whether β-catenin and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) are involved in the stimulatory effects of MAP4 on HCC migration, invasion and EMT. The results revealed that MAP4 levels were higher in the HCC tissues than in the normal hepatic tissues. More importantly, MAP4 knockdown suppressed migration and invasion abilities and EMT processes in HCC cells, which were confirmed by the stimulatory effects of MAP4 overexpression on EMT processes in HCC cells. Further evidence demonstrated that the up-regulation of β-catenin activity induced by the interaction between MAP4 and GSK3β possibly accounted for the pro-migration and pro-EMT effects of MAP4 on HCC cells. Taken together, these results suggest that MAP4 promotes migration, invasion, and EMT in HCC cells by regulating the GSK3β/β-catenin pathway.

UNASSIGNED: Primary hepatic sarcomatoid carcinoma (PHSC) is a rare type of malignant tumor in the liver. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on the imaging diagnosis of PHSC. In this study, we collected clinical and computed tomography (CT) imaging data of PHSC from two institutions, aiming to investigate the clinical and radiological characteristics of PHSC.
UNASSIGNED: We retrospectively investigated the clinical characteristics and CT features of 22 PHSC patients (19 males and 3 females; mean age, 63.4 years; range, 49 to 76 years), 95 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and 50 intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) patients. Two radiologists independently evaluated the CT features of the three groups. Subsequently, we analyzed the differences in the clinical characteristics and CT features between the PHSC and control groups.
UNASSIGNED: Most PHSCs were larger than 5 cm (72.7%). PHSC mainly showed irregular (81.8%), heterogeneous (100%) masses with ill-defined (72.7%) borders with necrosis (86.4%) on CT, which are more common CT features versus HCC (p < 0.001). In the arterial phase, PHSC always showed noticeable heterogeneous enhancement (100.0%), mainly manifesting as partial arterial phase hyperenhancement (APHE) (86.4%). The enhancement patterns of PHSC mainly included delayed progressive enhancement (72.7%), nonperipheral washout (22.7%), and unclassified enhancement (4.5%), which were significantly different from the HCC enhancement pattern but similar to the enhancement pattern of ICC. In addition, vein tumor thrombus (18.2%), intrahepatic metastasis (27.3%), and lymphadenopathy (27.3%) were relatively common in PHSC. Furthermore, most PHSC tumors classified as LR-M (66.7%) were similar to ICC.
UNASSIGNED: PHSC generally presents as irregularly large masses with necrosis, intrahepatic metastasis, and lymphadenopathy. The CT enhancement of PHSC is mainly part of APHE and delayed progressive enhancement.