Adrian M. Di Bisceglie, Steven Strasberg – 30 January 2004 – The Consensus Panel makes the following recommendations based on the above currently available evidence. 1The primary staging should be clinical staging, which can be applied to all patients. The CLIP system should be the clincial staging system of choice, because it is generally applicable to most patients, it includes easily collected variables. Most importantly, it has been externally and prospectively validated.

Thomas A. Gonwa, Linda Jennings, Martin L. Mai, Paul C. Stark, Andrew S. Levey, Goran B. Klintmalm – 30 January 2004 – The ability to estimate rather than measure the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in patients before and after liver transplantation would be helpful in estimating risk, dosing drugs, and assessing long‐term toxicity of calcineurin inhibitors. Currently available equations for estimating the GFR have not been validated in either the pre‐ or post‐liver transplant population.

Riccardo Lencioni, Dania Cioni, Laura Crocetti, Carlo Bartolozzi – 30 January 2004 – Percutaneous ablation is considered the best treatment option for patients with early‐stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who are not candidates for surgical resection or liver transplantation. Several methods have been developed, including intratumoral injection of ethanol or acetic acid, and thermal ablation with radiofrequency, laser, microwaves, or cryosurgery. Percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) has been the most widely used technique.

Masao Omata, Haruhiko Yoshida – 30 January 2004 – Viral hepatitis, by either hepatitis C virus (HCV) or hepatitis B virus (HBV), is the dominant cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This is to say that HCC may be prevented by controlling viral infection. Horizontal transmission of HCV has become obsolete owing to the discovery of the virus. Vertical transmission of HBV during delivery has been effectively prevented by vaccination and immunization of neonates. The efficacy of interferon therapy against HCV was recently much improved.

Michael G. Hughes, Christine K. Rudy, Tae W. Chong, Robert L. Smith, Heather L. Evans, Julia C. Iezzoni, Robert G. Sawyer, Timothy L. Pruett – 30 January 2004 – It is unknown whether all hepatitis C virus (HCV) quasispecies variants found within patient serum have equal capacity to associate with the liver after transplantation; however, in vitro models of HCV infection suggest that variations in the hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) of the second envelope protein (E2) may be important in infectivity.

Dympna M. Kelly, A. Jake Demetris, John J. Fung, Amadeo Marcos, Yue Zhu, Vladimir Subbotin, Lu Yin, Eishi Totsuka, Tomohiro Ishii, Ming C. Lee, Jorge Gutierrez, Guilherme Costa, Raman Venkataraman, Juan R. Madariaga – 30 January 2004 – Increasing shortage of cadaveric grafts demands the utilization of living donor and split liver grafts. The purpose of this study was to 1) define the “small‐for‐size” graft in a pig liver transplant model 2) evaluate pathological changes associated with small‐for‐size liver transplantation.

Masayoshi Horimoto, Péter Fülöp, Zoltán Derdák, Jack R. Wands, György Baffy – 30 January 2004 – The control of liver regeneration remains elusive. Because reactive oxygen species (ROS) are able to mediate cell growth arrest and activate proteins that inhibit the cell cycle, ROS production may have a negative impact on liver regeneration. We examined how liver regeneration is affected by uncoupling protein‐2 (UCP2), an inner mitochondrial membrane carrier that senses and negatively regulates superoxide production.

Jean‐Michel Pawlotsky, John G. McHutchison – 30 January 2004

Pierre‐Michel Huet, Gilles Pomier‐Layrargues – 30 January 2004

Massimo Colombo, Angelo Sangiovanni – 30 January 2004