The European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) held the Liver Cancer Summit, its annual conference focused on liver cancer in Estoril, Portugal, from 20-22 April. Zorana Maravic, DiCE CEO, and Lili Gundelach, DiCE scientific team member, attended this event.

Notably, on 21 April, EASL convened a meeting with DiCE, the International Liver Cancer Movement (ILCM), the International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA) and the European Liver Patients Association (ELPA) to explore how we can achieve a more united, collaborative approach within the liver cancer field between patient advocates, medical professionals, and of course patients themselves. The discussion focused on identifying common goals and planned activities for the year to avoid duplications and maximise efforts at a European level. All stakeholders present at the meeting saw a great need to elevate calls for early detection of cases, as well as to raise awareness of liver cancer and to identify key policy/advocacy asks to approach policymakers in a unified manner, thus achieving more impactful advocacy within the field.

During the conference, several relevant scientific topics were presented by experts in the field as well, followed by engaging discussions with the audience. These included several presentations on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance methods beyond ultrasound, updates on systemic therapy approaches for HCC, and how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used for risk prediction and treatment response prediction in liver cancer. Furthermore, EASL and ILCA launched the new EASL-ILCA Clinical Practice Guidelines on the management of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma on 19 April, for this to coincide with the Liver Cancer Summit. You can access DiCE’s news article about these guidelines here.

Author:
Lili Gundelach