Seminars in liver disease
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Seminars in liver disease · Nov 2018
Immunomodulatory Effects of Current Targeted Therapies on Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Implication for the Future of Immunotherapy.
Multikinase inhibitors with antiangiogenic properties used to be standard therapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Recently, several antiangiogenic agents (lenvatinib, cabozantinib, and ramucirumab) have demonstrated antitumor activity for advanced HCC in randomized controlled trials. However, the landscape of drug development for HCC may change dramatically with the advent of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, particularly the anti-programmed cell death-1 (anti-PD1) agents. ⋯ On the other hand, high dosage of the kinase inhibitors in pre-clinical models and hypoxia associated with angiogenesis may contribute to immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment. Sorafenib and other multikinase inhibitors may promote anti-tumor immunity through modulation of multiple immune cell types as well as the tumor microenvironment. The optimal immune modulatory dosage should be defined to facilitate design of future combination regimens.
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Seminars in liver disease · Nov 2018
ReviewLiver Toxicity with Cancer Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy.
Immune checkpoint inhibition targeted against cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) has shown clinically significant survival benefit when used to treat multiple types of advanced cancer. These drugs have gained approval by the US Food and Drug Administration and their indications continue to increase. ⋯ Histological assessment of suspected irAEs is nonspecific and can show a variety of features. Hepatic irAEs can require discontinuation of checkpoint inhibitor therapy and treatment with immunosuppressive agents.
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Seminars in liver disease · Aug 2018
ReviewPrevention and Management of Bleeding Risk Related to Invasive Procedures in Cirrhosis.
Cirrhosis represents the end stage of chronic liver disease and its transition from a compensated to a decompensated status is mainly driven by portal hypertension and systemic inflammation. Although relevant modifications in the evaluation of the coagulative balance in cirrhosis across its natural history have occurred and alterations in routine indices of hemostasis have lost their role as indicators of the hemorrhagic risk of patients with liver cirrhosis, these are still perceived as prone to bleed when admitted to invasive procedures. This view, which is still present in guidelines addressing the management of bleeding risk, makes preprocedural transfusion of plasma and platelets still an ongoing clinical practice. In this review, we describe the limitations of both bleeding risk assessment in cirrhotic patients admitted to radiologic and endoscopic invasive procedures and evaluate whether preventive strategies indicated by current guidelines can affect the procedure-related hemorrhagic events.
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Seminars in liver disease · Aug 2016
ReviewThe Geoepidemiology and Clinical Aspects of IgG4-Related Disease.
Immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a recently described systemic inflammatory disease characterized by increased serum IgG4 concentrations, lymphoplasmacytic infiltrations, storiform fibrosis, and obliterative phlebitis. However, although IgG4-RD has become increasingly recognized, the number of patients with IgG4-RD remains unclear. Data from several studies indicate that patients who have a T-helper type 2 (Th2-) dominant immune response, which leads to the hyperproduction of Th2 cytokines, then progress to IgG4-RD. ⋯ Second-line therapy after glucocorticoids includes immunosuppressant agents. Although the long-term outcome still remains unclear, there is increased interest in the relationships between IgG-RD and malignancies. In this review, the authors provide a detailed overview of the geoepidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnostic features, treatment, and prognosis of IgG4-RD.
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Seminars in liver disease · May 2016
ReviewAcute-on-Chronic Liver Failure: Definition, Diagnosis, and Clinical Characteristics.
Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a recently recognized syndrome in cirrhosis characterized by acute decompensation (AD), organ failure(s), and high short-term mortality. Organ failure(s) is defined by the Chronic Liver Failure-Sequential Organ Failure (CLIF-SOFA) score or by its simplified version Chronic Liver Failure-Organ Failure Assessment (CLIF-OF) score. They include six types of organ failure: liver, renal, coagulation, cerebral, respiratory, and circulatory. ⋯ According to the number of organ failures, ACLF is graded into three stages: ACLF-1 = single renal failure or single nonrenal organ failure if associated with renal dysfunction and/or cerebral dysfunction; ACLF-2 = two organ failures; and ACLF-3 = three to six organ failures, with increasing 28-day mortality rate (from 23%-74%). Acute-on-chronic liver failure may develop at any phase during the clinical course of the disease. Patients without prior AD develop a severe form of ACLF.