T. Kumada, S. Nakano, I. Takeda, K. Sugiyama, T. Osada, S. Kiriyama, Y. Sone, H. Toyoda, S. Shimada, M. Takahashi, T. Sassa – 30 December 2003 – To assess intrahepatic metastasis (IM) and multicentric occurrence (MO) after initial treatment of small hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) ≦ 2 cm in diameter, we performed clinical and pathological studies in 112 patients who underwent percutaneous ethanol injection therapy (PEIT) or hepatic resection for HCC from January 1985 to December 1994.

G. Covini, E. K. Chan, M. Nishioka, S. A. Morshed, S. I. Reed, E. M. Tan – 30 December 2003 – Proteins expressed by plasmids encoding human cyclins and cyclin‐dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) were used as antigens in immunoblotting. Fifteen of 100 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were found to have autoantibodies reactive with cyclin B1 and with a 40‐kd degradation product of cyclin B1‐glutathione‐S‐transferase (GST) fusion protein. Only one serum was found to react with cyclin A and another single serum with CDK2 but no antibodies were detected to cyclin D1 and E.

K. Harada, J. Van de Water, P. S. Leung, R. L. Coppel, Y. Nakanuma, M. E. Gershwin – 30 December 2003 – Pyruvate dehydrogenase‐E2, or a cross‐reactive molecule, has been shown by a variety of immunohistochemical methods to be present in increased amounts in biliary epithelial cells (BEC) in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC).

Mark W. Johnson, Patricia Thompson, Ann Meehan, Pat Odell, M. Jane Salm, David A. Gerber, Steven L. Zacks, Michael W. Fried, Roshan Shrestha, Jeffrey H. Fair – 30 December 2003 – Biliary complications account for significant morbidity in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), with a reported incidence ranging from 6% to 47%, and many centers are reassessing the need and options available for stenting the biliary anastomosis. We report on our experience using a 6F Silastic, double‐J, ureteral stent as an internal biliary stent in OLT.

Linda L. Wong, Whitney M. Limm, Richard Severino, Livingston M. Wong – 30 December 2003 – Hepatocellular cancer (HCC) is a frequent cause of cancer death worldwide. Although successful screening programs exist in Asian countries, the role for screening in the United States is not clear. The purpose of this study is to determine if screening has an effect on survival in a predominantly Asian population in Hawaii. We retrospectively reviewed cases of HCC from 1993 to 1998 for demographic data, risk factors, symptoms, stage, treatment, and survival.

Geoffrey W. McCaughan, Tomasz Laskus, Hugo E. Vargas – 30 December 2003

Matteo Cescon, Gian Luca Grazi, Giorgio Ercolani, Bruno Nardo, Matteo Ravaioli, Andrea Gardini, Antonino Cavallari – 30 December 2003 – Isolated cases or small series of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) with grafts from donors older than 80 years have been reported, but the long‐term outcome of patients receiving livers from extremely old donors is unknown. From 1998 to 2003, we performed 17 OLTs with donors older than 80 years (median, 82 years; range, 80 to 87 years). No deaths occurred in the early postoperative period.

Kim M. Olthoff – 30 December 2003 – Key points

Gerald S. Lipshutz, Lee Ann Baxter‐Lowe, Tim Nguyen, Kirk D. Jones, Nancy L. Ascher, Sandy Feng – 30 December 2003 – Transplantation of organs procured from donors with malignancies identified subsequent to implantation presents a significant dilemma regarding the optimal management strategy to simultaneously minimize the risk for cancer transmission and recipient morbidity. In this report, we present a patient who underwent orthotopic liver transplantation for hepatitis B cirrhosis. The donor had no previous history of cancer.

Ryan M. Thomas, John J. Brems, Grace Guzman‐Hartman, Sherri Yong, Patricia Cavaliere, David H. Van Thiel – 30 December 2003 – An analysis of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Liver Transplant Registry data shows that the greater the viral load at the time of transplantation, the more rapidly clinically evident posttransplantation hepatitis C virus (HCV) disease recurs. These data suggest that aggressive pretransplantation treatment of HCV might delay recurrent posttransplantation HCV disease and enhance posttransplantation survival.