Meet the Experts sessions
Come to the Meet the Experts sessions to hear from top-notch specialists and follow live and highly interactive discussions. We're building on the success of the annual Meet the Experts sessions, holding them again this June at ILC 2022, in London. They last took place in person at ILC 2019 and were held digitally in between.
Browse the sessions, choose your favourites, save the date, and prepare to book your spot, as places are limited. Bookings open mid-June, so stay tuned and plan to reserve your spot.
How is the Meet the Expert session run?
For each session, two experts will provide their answers to key questions. Each session lasts one hour and follows an informal, interactive format. Get ready for the session by booking your place, reading the descriptions, and preparing your questions.
How will delegates view the sessions?
The sessions take place live, in an informal and engaging style. They will not be recorded or broadcast. Take this special opportunity if you are attending ILC 2022 in person to benefit from this lively, face-to-face experience. Enjoy this unique experience of networking and learning.
Discover the sessions
There are 26 Meet the Experts sessions to choose from, at least one per topic track focusing on specific areas in hepatology. Browse the topics below to pick the right one for you.
Pick your topic of interest
Cirrhosis and complications
Meet the Experts: NSBB - therapeutic window
Questions for discussion:
- What is the effect of beta-blockers in patients with cirrhosis?
- When and why should one start beta-blockers in compensated patients?
- Beta-blockers or EVL in patients with high-risk varices?
- If the compensated patient on beta-blockers decompensates, what should one do with the beta-blocker?
- Should beta-blockers be stopped if the patient has further decompensation like SBP, HRS?
- Should beta-blockers be stopped if the patient has ACLF and/or sepsis?
Read more
Meet the Experts: Management of ACLF
Questions for discussion:
-
Does this patient have ACLF when hospitalised? Does this patient have ACLF when intubated?
- What is the prognosis at the time of admission/at Day-4?
- General management of antibiotic Rx: indication? What? How long? Pre-emptive? Antifungals? Risks?
- Is there anything specific you do in the ICU? Airway management? Which vasopressors? Role of TIPS?
- Any specific treatments? GCSF? Cell-therapy? What about albumin? Liver Support: Is there any role?
- Is there a role for liver transplantation?
Read more
General Hepatology
Meet the Experts: Monitoring mortality from liver diseases
Questions for discussion:
- Why are death certificate so unreliable to monitor liver disease mortality?
- How can a country improve them – particularly in the case of decompensated cirrhosis ?
- Is there a role for verbal autopsy or other complementary sources of information?
- What are the most common source of histological misclassification in cancer registries and how can these be corrected?
- How can cancer registries be strengthened, particularly in Africa?
- Is it a feasible option in your country/health care centre?
- What are the pros and cons of such an exercise?
- What is the role of statistical modelling in monitoring mortality?
Read more
Meet the Experts: PSVD diagnosis and monitoring
Questions for discussion:
- Why PSVD? How is it currently defined? What is required for diagnosis?
- What are the complications of PSVD?
- What are the causes?
- What noninvasive tools are useful to diagnose PSVD? How? Are they useful for follow-up?
- What treatment can we propose?
- TIPS and PSVD, indications? Results? Surgery and PSVD? Prognosis factors?
- Liver transplantation and PSVD? Indications? Results?
Read more
(Skills Learning Centre) Meet the Experts: Endo-hepatology: EUS guided diagnostic/therapeutic interventions
Read more
EASL-ERN Meet the Experts: AAT deficiency
This session is co-organised with ERN.
Questions for discussion:
- What are the most clinically relevant genotypes of AATD and how to diagnose them?
- What are the primary organ manifestations of AATD?
- What are the consequences of the most clinically relevant genotypes?
- How does the Z mutation cause disease?
- How should you manage a lung disease in a ZZ patient?
- How should you manage a liver disease in a ZZ patient?
- What emerging therapies are there and how do they work?
Read more
Immune-mediated and cholestatic diseases
Meet the Experts: Checkpoint inhibitor - induced immune-mediated hepatitis
Questions for discussion:
- Which differential diagnoses did you detect in a patient with acute hepatitis under checkpoint-inhibitor treatment?
- What is the interest of a liver biopsy and what are the indications to perform it?
- How should you evaluate disease severity and when should you start steroid treatment? What is the optimal dosage of predniso(lo)ne?
- When second and third-line treatment should be started, and which agent is your personal preference?
- Is there a place for the use of UDCA?
- Which criteria should be used to rechallenge the patients with previous ICI-induced liver toxicity? Is there an indication for corticosteroid prophylaxis?
- Did you ever have the impression that checkpoint-inhibitor treatment could induce chronic hepatitis?
Read more
Meet the Experts: How to treat cholestasis-associated itch?
Questions for discussion:
- How do I distinguish hepatic pruritus from other causes?
- How do I perform a further clinical and laboratory work up for most important differential diagnoses?
- How do I approach a patient with hepatic pruritus?
- What treatments are recommended beyond the clinical practice guidelines?
- May I co-administer any anti-pruritic therapies in refractory patients?
- How to treat patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis?
- Beyond drugs: what kind of invasive procedures may be used as anti-pruritic therapies?
- What brings the future for our desperate patients?
Read more
Meet the Experts: AIH - 2nd and 3rd line treatment
Questions for discussion:
- Who qualifies for second-line treatment (intolerance to standard treatment - how to define intolerance?)
- Who qualifies for third-line treatment (insufficient response - how would that be defined)
- How soon should alternative treatment be initiated?
- How to deal with adherence problems responsible for insufficient response?
- Which third-line-drug for whom? What drugs are available (safety profiles, use in the pandemic situation, etc.)
- When is an indication for follow-up liver biopsy?
- What treatment is good for patients with advanced cirrhosis and poor response?
Read more
Liver Tumours
Meet the Experts: Treatment of advanced HCC in specific population (haemodialysis, transplantation)
Questions for discussion:
- Is hemodialysis a contraindication for immunotherapy? And for bevacizumab?
- Which is the best treatment strategy for patients on hemodialysis? First-line? Second-line? Sequence(s)?
- Is efficacy in patients on hemodialysis different/inferior compared to other HCC patients?
- Are adverse events different/more severe in patients on hemodialysis? How should they be monitored?
- Is prior transplantation always a contraindication for immunotherapy?
- Which is the best treatment strategy for transplanted patients? First-line? Second-line? Sequence(s)?
- Is TKI efficacy in transplanted patients different/inferior compared to other HCC patients?
- Are adverse events different/more severe in transplanted patients? How should they be monitored?
- How about mTOR inhibitors? (For the transplant not for HCC)
Read more
Meet the Experts: Sequencing systemic treatment for HCC
Questions for discussion:
- Could local treatment be offered after treatment with IO?
- How do we define toxicity to stop first-line treatment?
- How do we manage the progression in the setting of IO-based combination? What are the elements suggesting pseudo-progression under IO for HCC?
- What is the proportion of patient that could receive second-line treatment in the context of IO-based combination?
- How do complications of cirrhosis impact the plan of sequencing of systemic treatment?
- How the treatment availability in your country change the landscape of the sequencing?
- How do you define the sequencing in special populations (liver transplantation, liver dysfunction…)?
- What is the current evidence for the use of TKIs after IO progression?
- Could you consider a second IO-based combination after failure of first IO-based combination?
- What is the role of patient preference in the clinical decision?
Read more
Meet the Experts: Preclinical models for HCC
Questions for discussion:
- Where are we standing with in vitro HCC models? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using organoids, precision-cut slides, decellularized organ scaffolds and integration with bioreactor in order to provide controlled culture conditions?
- How to consider the in vitro HCC models in personalized medicine applications (i.e. drug screening to find the best treatment)?
- What aspects of HCC should minimally be modelled and considered in vitro models? (i.e. including multiple cell types (tumour cells, stromal cells); tumour or liver extracellular matrix; angiogenesis; tumour heterogeneity)
- What are the best murine models to mimic HCC- genetic models or inflammatory models? or both?
- How to model NASH and fatty liver diseases best in mouse or humanized models so they represent a background for HCC progression?
- What is the future of immunotherapy in HCC?
Read more
Metabolism, alcohol and toxicity
Meet the Experts: Management of alcohol use disorders
Questions for discussion:
- How should we manage alcohol withdrawal—planned or unplanned?
- How can we help support abstinence?
- Monitoring drinking behaviour/abstinence
- Barriers to treatment for the hepatologist
- Optimal treatment model and how it can be achieved
Read more
Meet the Experts: Diagnostic biomarkers in NAFLD and ALD
Questions for discussion:
- Biomarker “Contexts of Use” - do all biomarkers work in all situations?
- The LITMUS experience on biomarker qualification
- Which are the best performing biomarkers for identifying NASH or advanced fibrosis? (blood tests and imaging)
- How will polygenic risk scores fit in?
- NAFLD, MAFLD and ALD, where one starts and the other ends?
- How omics help biomarker discovery?
Read more
Viral Hepatitis
Meet the Experts: HBV reactivation - monitor or prevent?
Questions for discussion:
- Antiviral prophylaxis for prevention of HBV reactivation: who should manage the patient? which drugs should be used? And when can antiviral prophylaxis be stopped?
- The role of anti-HBs titers in guiding management decisions
- Does the underlying disease influence decision making?
- Rituximab and HBV reactivation: is prophylaxis always indicated?
- HBV and immune checkpoint inhibitors: who should be screened and how? Who may benefit from prophylaxis and who from just monitoring?
- Protein kinase inhibitors: what to do in HBsAg+ vs anti-HBc+ individuals?
- Antiviral prophylaxis for anti-HBc+ subjects undergoing solid-organ transplantation: prophylaxis or pre-emptive therapy?
Read more
Meet the Experts: Therapeutic concepts for HDV
Questions for discussion:
- Is CHD always a progressive liver disease?
- How frequent do you use pegiFNalpha therapy?
- How would you define “response“ in the setting of anti-HDV therapy?
- BLV as monotherapy or in combination with pegIFN alpha?
- Other anti-HDV therapeutic approaches?
- Do we need pegIFN to cure HDV patients?
Read more
Meet the Experts: Extrahepatic manifestations of HEV - what hepatologists should know
Questions for discussion:
- Which patients are at risk for chronic hepatitis E virus infection?
- Treatment of chronic HEV: Whom should we treat, and when to start treatment?
- Are there extrahepatic manifestations, and which are of clinical significance?
Read more
Meet the Experts: HBV - should we treat immunotolerant patients?
Questions for discussion:
-
Male, 27 years old, HBeAg+, ALT 35 IU/L, HBV DNA 45,000,000 IU/ml. -Further management?
-
Male, 27 years old, HBeAg+, ALT 28-40 IU/L for 12 months (on four 3-monthly determinations), HBV DNA 45,000,000 IU/ml. -Further management?
-
Female, 32 years old, HBeAg+, ALT 28-40 IU/L for 12 months (on four 3-monthly determinations), liver stiffness 7.8 kPa. -Further management?
-
Male, 42 years old, HBeAg+, ALT 28-40 IU/L for 12 months (on four 3-monthly determinations), liver stiffness 7.8 kPa. -If treatment is decided, which is the optimal treatment option? What is the optimal treatment end-point?
- Male 46 years old, HBeAg positive from 3 years. HBsAg neg until May 2008 (blood donor), then HBsAg pos and 1 month later acute hepatitis, without HBsAg clearance, but spontaneous ALT normalization. At the first observation 2011 HBV-DNA <1.7x 108 IU/ml, ALT 21 U/l, liver stiffness 4.9 kPa. -Further management?
-
Female 40 years old, HBeAg positive since the age of 15. Father died after OLT for HCC on HBV cirrhosis. HBV-DNA 9.4 x 107 IU/ml, ALT 37-51, kPa 4.4. -Is there any indication for treatment?
-
Female 18 years old, HBeAg Positive , ALT 32-39 U/L for more than 3 years (on for 3-monthly determination in the last 18 months), liver stiffness 6.8 kPa, liver histology: grading 5/18, grading 1/6. -Treat or not to treat? Eventually, how?
Read more
