Development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells targeting A56 viral protein implanted by oncolytic virus.

To address the challenge of solid tumor targeting in CAR-T therapy, we utilized the A56 antigen, which is uniquely expressed on a diverse range of cancer cells following the systemic administration of an oncolytic vaccinia virus (OVV). Immunohistochemical assays precisely confirmed exclusive localization of A56 to tumor tissues. studies demonstrated a distinct superiority of A56-dependent CAR-T cytotoxicity across multiple cancer cell lines.

Primary Biliary Cholangitis with Ankylosing Spondylitis.

Primary biliary cholangitis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune liver disease that is characterized by a positive antimitochondrial antibodies test and progressive destruction of the small intrahepatic bile duct. Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic, systemic, inflammatory disease of the spine and the sacroiliac joints. The association between these two is very low.

Efficacy and Safety of Glecaprevir/Pibrentasvir in Korean Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C: A Pooled Analysis of Five Phase II/III Trials.

Background/aims: Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (G/P) is the first pan-genotypic direct-acting antiviral combination therapy approved in Korea. An integrated analysis of five phase II and III trials was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of G/P in Korean patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Methods: The study analyzed pooled data on Korean patients with HCV infection enrolled in the ENDURANCE 1 and 2, SURVEYOR II part 4 and VOYAGE I and II trials, which evaluated the efficacy and safety of 8 or 12 weeks of G/P treatment.

Systemic immune-inflammation index predicts prognosis of sequential therapy with sorafenib and regorafenib in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Regorafenib has shown promising results as a second-line therapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who progressed on sorafenib. Although there have been several data regarding the efficacy of sequential therapy with sorafenib and that of regorafenib in real-life, specific inflammation markers for predicting the prognosis have not been studied. This study aimed to investigate prognostic value of systemic inflammatory markers in patients with HCC who received sorafenib-regorafenib sequential therapy.

Engineering and Preclinical Evaluation of Western Reserve Oncolytic Vaccinia Virus Expressing A167Y Mutant Herpes Simplex Virus Thymidine Kinase.

Viral replication of deleted () vaccinia virus (VV) is attenuated in resting normal cells, enabling cancer selectivity, however, replication potency of VV appears to be diminished in cancer cells. Previously, we found that wild-type herpes simplex virus (HSV () disappeared in most of the recombinant VV after multiple screenings, and only a few recombinant VV containing naturally mutated remained stable. In this study, VV of western reserve (WR) VV was replaced by A167Y mutated (), to alter nucleoside selectivity from broad spectrum to purine exclusive selectivity.

Pretreatment peripheral neutrophils, lymphocytes and monocytes predict long-term survival in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an inflammation-related cancer, where nonresolving inflammation contributes to its development and progression. Peripheral inflammatory cells have been shown to be associated with the prognosis of various types of cancer. The present study investigated the utility of pretreatment peripheral inflammatory cells in the prognosis of patients with HCC.

Direct-Acting Antivirals Improve Treatment Outcomes in Patients with Hepatitis C Virus-Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treated with Transarterial Chemoembolization: A Nationwide, Multi-center, Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background And Aims: The influence of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) on chronic hepatitis C (CHC)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains controversial. We investigated the effect of eradicating CHC using DAAs on treatment outcomes in patients with CHC-related HCC treated with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE).

Methods: This nationwide, multi-center, retrospective study recruited patients with CHC-related HCC treated with TACE as the first-line anti-cancer treatment, and who achieved a sustained virological response (SVR) using DAAs (DAA group) between 2006 and 2017.

Real-Life Effectiveness and Safety of Glecaprevir/Pibrentasvir for Korean Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C at a Single Institution.

Background/aims: Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (G/P) is a combination of direct-acting antiviral agents that is an approved treatment for chronic infections by all six hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes. However, there are limited data on the effect of G/P in Korean patients in actual real-world settings. We evaluated the real-life effectiveness and safety of G/P at a single institution in Korea.

Preoperative blood neutrophil count predicts survival in hepatocellular carcinoma patients with living donor liver transplantation.

Background: The Milan criteria (MC) used to select patients for liver transplantation among patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) do not include tumor biology. Furthermore, systemic inflammatory markers have been identified to predict tumor biology. The present study investigated prognostic value of systemic inflammatory markers, including neutrophil count, in predicting the prognosis of patients with HCC undergoing living donor liver transplantation (LDLT).

Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio predicts the therapeutic benefit of neoadjuvant transarterial chemoembolization in patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background And Aims: All published meta-analyses failed to demonstrate that preoperative transarterial chemoembolization improves the clinical outcomes of patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma. The present study aimed to investigate the utility of systemic inflammatory cells as a tumor biology marker predicting therapeutic benefit of neoadjuvant transarterial chemoembolization in patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively investigated 441 hepatocellular carcinoma patients who underwent curative resection.

Changes in the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio predict the prognosis of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma treated with sorafenib.

Background And Aim: Although sorafenib is the first systemic therapy to show survival benefit for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), its survival benefit is variable for HCC. Systemic inflammation may be associated with survival in HCC. We investigated the use of systemic inflammation markers, including neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), in the prognosis of sorafenib-treated HCC patients.

The predictors of sustained virological response with sofosbuvir and ribavirin in patients with chronic hepatitis C genotype 2.

Background/aims: Real-world, clinical practice data are lacking about sofosbuvir/ ribavirin (SOF/RBV) treatment of Korean patients with hepatitis C virus genotype 2 (HCV GT2) infection. This study investigated the efficacy and safety of SOF/RBV in Korean patients with HCV GT2 infection and clinical factors predicting sustained virological response 12 weeks (SVR12) after the end of SOF/RBV treatment.

Methods: A total of 181 patients with HCV GT2 with/without cirrhosis were treated with SOF/RBV for 16/12 weeks.

Preclinical safety evaluation of hepatic arterial infusion of oncolytic poxvirus.

Purpose: Oncolytic poxvirus has shown promise in treating various solid tumors, such as liver cancer, and administration of oncolytic poxvirus via the hepatic artery may provide more survival benefits than other routes of administration. However, there is a lack of safety information to guide the application of hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) of oncolytic poxvirus in human studies. To investigate the acute and chronic toxicity of HAI administration of oncolytic poxvirus in animals and provide safety information for future human studies.

Role of endoscopic biliary drainage in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with jaundice.

Background: Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with jaundice have an extremely poor prognosis. Although biliary drainage can resolve obstructive jaundice, signs of obstruction may not be evident. This study evaluated the role of endoscopic biliary drainage in patients with advanced HCC and obstructive jaundice.

Risk factors of early recurrence after curative hepatectomy in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Early recurrence is common after curative hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma and is associated with poor prognosis. This study aimed to identify risk factors of early recurrence after curative hepatectomy in hepatocellular carcinoma. Overall, 63 patients who underwent curative hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma were enrolled.

Clinical usefulness of controlled attenuation parameter to screen hepatic steatosis for potential donor of living donor liver transplant.

Objective: Hepatic steatosis is associated with an increased risk of graft loss. Although the controlled attenuation parameter (CAP), a process based on transient elastography, has been suggested as a noninvasive method of assessing hepatic steatosis, to date, there is no study on the usefulness of CAP as a single screening tool for detecting hepatic steatosis in potential living donor liver. We evaluated the accuracy of CAP for detecting hepatic steatosis in potential liver donors.

Thromboelastographic Evaluation of Coagulation in Patients With Liver Disease.

Background: The aims of this study were to investigate the parameters of thromboelastography (TEG) for evaluating coagulopathy and to reveal an association with disease severity and/or transfusion requirement in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) in a clinical laboratory setting.

Methods: We enrolled two groups of adult patients with cirrhotic (N=123) and non-cirrhotic liver disease (N=52), as well as 84 healthy controls. Reaction time (R), kinetic time (K), α-angle (α), maximal amplitude (MA), and coagulation index (CI) were measured with kaolin-activated citrated blood with the TEG 5000 system (Haemonetics Corporation, USA).

Emergency endoscopic variceal ligation in cirrhotic patients with blood clots in the stomach but no active bleeding or stigmata increases the risk of rebleeding.

Background/aims: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of emergency variceal ligation for the prevention of rebleeding in cirrhotic patients who are found on initial endoscopy to have blood clots in the stomach but no actively bleeding esophageal and gastric varices or stigmata.

Methods: This study included 28 cirrhotic patients who underwent emergency prophylactic EVL and 41 who underwent an elective intervention between January 2009 and June 2014. Clinical outcomes were analyzed, including the rebleeding, 6-week mortality, and rebleeding-free survival rates.

Urgency to treat patients with chronic hepatitis C in Asia.

Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection poses a global healthcare burden, being associated with serious complications if untreated. The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is highest in areas of Central, South, and East Asia; over 50% of HCV patients worldwide live in the region, where HCV genotypes 1b, 2, 3, and 6 are the most prevalent. Treatment outcomes for chronic hepatitis C vary by ethnicity, and Asian patients achieve higher sustained virologic response rates following interferon (IFN)-based therapy than non-Asians.

The Prevalence of Colonic Neoplasm in Cryptogenic Pyogenic Liver Abscess: A Prospectively Enrolled Cross-sectional Study.

Background/aims: Several studies suggest that pyogenic liver abscess (PLA) is associated with colon neoplasm. A colonoscopic exam for cryptogenic PLA might detect a hidden colon neoplasm, through which intestinal flora can be transmitted into the liver. However, there are no prospectively enrolled cross-sectional data for colonic neoplasm in cryptogenic PLA.

The Prescription Pattern of Acetaminophen and Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis.

Analgesics, known to be hepatotoxic drugs, are frequently prescribed to patients with liver cirrhosis who are prone to drug-induced liver injury. No guidelines are available regarding the prescription of analgesics in these patients. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the prescription pattern of most frequently used analgesics in patients with cirrhosis.

Effect of yttrium-90 radioembolization on outcomes in Asian patients with early to advanced stage hepatocellular carcinoma.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of yttrium-90 radioembolization on the outcome of Asian patients with early to advanced stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: Sixty-two patients were screened and 50 patients (80.6%) were eligible.