Launching the second EASL-Lancet Commission on liver health in Europe: prevention, case-finding and early diagnosis to reduce liver-related mortality

Triggered by the rising burden of liver disease, the Lancet and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) jointly arranged a Commission to explore the landscape of liver health in Europe. The culmination of this work was a first report published in 2021, which offered ten recommendations to shift focus from end-stage care to prevention and health promotion in liver health across Europe.

In November 2023, a second EASL-Lancet Commission began with the goal of creating a roadmap for the operationalisation of the recommendations set forth in the first report. Prof. Tom Hemming Karlsen, Steering Committee Co-Chair of the EASL-Lancet Commission succinctly summarised the importance of a second report: “Why a second EASL-Lancet Commission? We have seen a remarkable response to the recommendations from our first Commission report, not only within the hepatology community, but also from other health care sectors, primary care in particular, in shifting the focus towards prevention, early detection and early interventions. But work remains, particularly related to structural drivers of liver-related mortality, most markedly the fragmented landscape of alcohol policies in Europe. This second commission is dedicated to ensuring that actions continue, to maximise implementation of the changes we proposed, alongside data and grass-root indicators to measure progress in this implementation.”

“To improve the lives of all people around Europe,” Prof. Aleksander Krag, Secretary General of EASL reiterated at the Geneva meeting “is the ultimate goal of all EASL activities. Embarking on a second Commission allows the liver health community to identify those problems in the field that are in most need of bold and tangible solutions”.