Publications by authors named "Maria Reig"

Cancer immunotherapies with antibodies blocking immune checkpoint molecules are clinically active across multiple cancer entities and have markedly improved cancer treatment. Yet, response rates are still limited, and tumour progression commonly occurs. Soluble and cell-bound factors in the tumour microenvironment negatively affect cancer immunity.

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  • Metabolic liver disease is increasingly linked to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood; this study focuses on DNA methylation's role in HCC associated with metabolic issues.
  • The research involved 272 HCC patients and 316 control subjects, revealing 55 DNA methylation markers that effectively distinguished HCC cases from controls, achieving an AUC of 0.79 for accuracy.
  • Combining these markers with demographic data improved sensitivity and specificity for identifying patients at risk for metabolic HCC.
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Objective: To develop a domain-specific large language model (LLM) for LI-RADS v2018 categorization of hepatic observations based on free-text descriptions extracted from MRI reports.

Material And Methods: This retrospective study included 291 small liver observations, divided into training (n = 141), validation (n = 30), and test (n = 120) datasets. Of these, 120 were fictitious, and 171 were extracted from 175 MRI reports from a single institution.

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  • This study examines how early clinical hepatic decompensation (CHD) affects the overall survival (OS) of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC) who are receiving systemic treatments like Atezolizumab plus Bevacizumab or Sorafenib.
  • Researchers analyzed data from the IMbrave150 trial and found that patients experiencing early CHD had a significantly higher risk of mortality, indicating a poor prognosis.
  • The study identifies specific factors (like ALBI grade, INR levels, and macrovascular invasion) that put patients at a greater risk for CHD, suggesting that these could be useful in future clinical trials to better assess patient outcomes.
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  • Recent advancements in understanding liver cancer (hepatocarcinogenesis) have led to increased interest in rare primary liver cancers (PLCs) like combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma, fibrolamellar carcinoma, and hepatic epithelioid hemangioendothelioma.
  • An international panel of experts has compiled information on the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of these rare PLCs.
  • While clinical trials for some of these cancers are in progress, there's a clear need for more research and collaboration across nations to improve outcomes.
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Background & Aims: In the global, phase III HIMALAYA study in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC), STRIDE (Single Tremelimumab Regular Interval Durvalumab) improved overall survival (OS) vs. sorafenib; durvalumab was non-inferior to sorafenib. HBV is the predominant HCC aetiology in most of Asia vs.

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Background & Aims: Assessment of recurrence risk after liver resection (LR) is critical in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), particularly with the advent of effective adjuvant therapy. The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical and pathological factors associated with recurrence, aggressive recurrence, and survival after LR.

Method: We performed a retrospective study in which all single HCC (BCLC-0/A) patients treated with LR between February 2000 and November 2020 were included.

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Background And Objectives: Direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) offer a high rate of hepatitis C virus (HCV) eradication. However, concerns on the risk of cancer after HCV eradication remain. Our study aimed at quantifying the incidence of cancer in patients treated with anti-HCV therapies in Catalonia (Spain) and their matched controls.

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Background And Aims: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) is a significant health concern with limited treatment options. AXL, a receptor tyrosine kinase activated by the GAS6 ligand, promotes MASH through activation of hepatic stellate cells and inflammatory macrophages. This study identified cell subsets affected by MASH progression and the effect of AXL inhibition.

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Introduction: The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS) is unknown and there is no validated diagnostic work-up to define the liver nodules with arterial phase hyperenhancement (APHE), suggesting malignancy. This prospective study evaluates HCC incidence in a Western cohort of patients with BCS and assesses the performance of MRI with hepatobiliary contrast (HB-MRI) for nodule characterization.

Methods: Patients with BCS followed in our hospital were prospectively evaluated by MRI with extracellular contrast (EC-MRI).

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Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a global health problem. In the public sector of Bahía Blanca, CRC screening is opportunistic, through the request of fecal occult blood test (FOBT). The objective of this study is to describe access to CRC screening for the population with exclusive public coverage residing in the programmatic area 2 of the city between 2019 and 2021, and to identify the barriers and facilitators that determine it.

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During the last decade, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) sorafenib and regorafenib have been standard systemic treatments for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Previous data associated sorafenib with inflammasome activation. However, the role of the inflammasome in sorafenib and regorafenib signaling has not been described in liver cancer patients.

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RNA helicase DHX15 plays a significant role in vasculature development and lung metastasis in vertebrates. In addition, several studies have demonstrated the overexpression of DHX15 in the context of hepatocellular carcinoma. Therefore, we hypothesized that this helicase may play a significant role in liver regeneration, physiology, and pathology.

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  • Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major cancer with variable outcomes influenced by tumor size and chronic liver disease severity, complicating patient treatment.
  • Randomized-controlled trials are crucial for unbiased treatment effect estimates in medicine, particularly oncology, while observational studies can suffer from validity issues but may uncover rare or long-term adverse events.
  • The review discusses how to effectively use real-world data and evidence from patient care to tackle unresolved issues in HCC research, comparing the strengths and weaknesses of different study designs.
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The evolution in systemic therapies in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) signifies a strategy of high-cost, high-gain innovation that originated with sorafenib, despite its limited impact on tumor response. This strategic approach paved the way for the emergence of a second wave of the short-lived competitive advantage, exemplified by the incorporation of atezolizumab plus bevacizumab and tremelimumab plus durvalumab. In the context of safety concerns within the liver cancer domain, the IMBRAVE150 and HIMALAYA trials boldly incorporated bevacizumab and tremelimumab, respectively, demonstrating the continuation of the high-risk, high-reward innovation paradigm.

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Purpose: External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) is a highly effective treatment in select patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer system does not recommend the use of EBRT in HCC due to a lack of sufficient evidence and intends to perform an individual patient level meta-analysis of ablative EBRT in this population. However, there are many types of EBRT described in the literature with no formal definition of what constitutes "ablative.

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Cholangiocarcinomas (CCAs) are cancers originated in the biliary tree, which are characterized by their high mortality and marked chemoresistance, partly due to the activity of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) export pumps, whose inhibition has been proposed as a strategy for enhancing the response to chemotherapy. We have previously shown that β-caryophyllene oxide (CRYO) acts as a chemosensitizer in hepatocellular carcinoma by inhibiting ABCB1, MRP1, and MRP2. Here, we have evaluated the usefulness of CRYO in inhibiting BCRP and improving the response of CCA to antitumor drugs.

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  • Primary liver cancer can originate from two cell types, leading to different types of tumors: hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICCA), with combined tumors (cHCC-CCA) displaying mixed characteristics.
  • Researchers utilized deep learning to categorize tumors in a study involving 405 cHCC-CCA patients, successfully distinguishing between HCC and ICCA types.
  • This deep learning method showed potential for enhancing treatment strategies and improving patient outcomes for those with complex liver cancers.
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Liver transplantation offers the best chance of cure for most patients with non-metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although not all patients with HCC are eligible for liver transplantation at diagnosis, some can be downstaged using locoregional treatments such as ablation and transarterial chemoembolization. These aforementioned treatments are being applied as bridging therapies to keep patients within transplant criteria and to avoid them from dropping out of the waiting list while awaiting a liver transplant.

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(1) Background: The objectives of this study were to evaluate the concurrent and predictive validity and the applicability of the global leadership initiative on malnutrition (GLIM) criteria in patients hospitalized for acute medical conditions. (2) Methods: prospective cohort study with patients hospitalized for acute medical conditions. For validation, the methodology proposed by the GLIM group of experts was used.

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Background: Ablation is a first-line treatment for Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC)-0/A hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, there are scarce data about patients' outcomes after recurrence. The present study evaluates the impact of patient and tumor characteristics at baseline and at recurrence on the Clinical Decision-Making process.

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  • The behaviors of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) can significantly impact clinical trial results, with indolent (slow-growing) HCC being less frequently studied compared to aggressive forms.
  • Indolent HCC is characterized by a low risk of progression, spontaneous regression, and radiological changes that don’t affect liver function or patient symptoms.
  • The study suggests that an imbalance in the presence of indolent versus aggressive HCC can influence trial outcomes, proposing new methods for evaluating progression and survival to better reflect indolent HCC in clinical trials.
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Animal studies implicate one-carbon metabolism and DNA methylation genes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development in the setting of metabolic perturbations. Using human samples, we investigated the associations between common and rare variants in these closely related biochemical pathways and risk for metabolic HCC development in a multicenter international study. We performed targeted exome sequencing of 64 genes among 556 metabolic HCC cases and 643 cancer-free controls with metabolic conditions.

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