Reviews
Non-invasive tools for compensated advanced chronic liver disease and portal hypertension after Baveno VII – an update
Non-invasive tests (NITs) and liver stiffness measurement (LSM) in particular, have entered clinical practice over 20 years ago as point-of-care tests to diagnose liver fibrosis in patients with compensated chronic liver disease. Since then, NITs use has evolved thanks to a large number of studies in all major etiologies of liver disease, and they have become important tools to stratify the risk of portal hypertension and liver-related events. The Baveno VII consensus workshop provided several novel recommendations regarding the use of well-established and novel NITs in the specific setting of portal hypertension screening, diagnosis and follow-up.Colectomy rates in ulcerative colitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Surgical management in Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is typically utilised in medically refractory cases and, therefore, it is a useful marker for efficacy of medical management.Pesticides and pancreatic adenocarcinoma: A transversal epidemiological, environmental and mechanistic narrative review
Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) incidence is rising worldwide, especially in France. The evolution of known risk factors such as tobacco smoking, obesity, type 2 diabetes, chronic pancreatitis, or constitutional mutations is not sufficient to explain this trend. Pesticides are known risk factors in other malignancies. Previous studies have outlined pesticides' influence in PA, such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane as plausible risk factors. The general population is directly or indirectly exposed to pesticides through air, food or water.Critical signaling pathways governing colitis-associated colorectal cancer: Signaling, therapeutic implications, and challenges
Long-term colitis in people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may lead to colon cancer called colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC). Since the advent of preclinical prototypes of CAC, various immunological messaging cascades have been identified as implicated in developing this disease. The toll-like receptor (TLR)s, Janus kinase (JAK)-signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT), Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), mammalian target of rapamycin complex (mTOR), autophagy, and oxidative stress are only a few of the molecular mechanisms that have been recognized as major components to CAC progression.Impact of colorectal cancer screening on incidence, mortality and surgery rates: Evidences from programs based on the fecal immunochemical test in Italy
Fecal immunochemical tests (FIT) are among the most commonly used tests for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programs worldwide. However, no randomised controlled trials have been carried out evaluating the impact of FIT-based screening programs (FIT-progr) on CRC incidence and mortality rates. Italian FIT-progr represent one of the most widespread and established experience worldwide. This paper reviews the evidence on the impact of FIT-progr on CRC incidence, tumor stage at diagnosis, mortality and surgery rates, deriving from Italian routine programs, i.e., outside the research setting.Covid-19 and alcohol associated liver disease
The COVID-19 pandemic is having substantial impacts on the health status of individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD). AUD and ALD have both been impacted throughout the pandemic, with increases in alcohol use during the early stages of the pandemic, reduced access to treatment during the mid-pandemic, and challenges in managing the downstream effects in the post-COVID era. This review will focus on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted AUD and ALD epidemiology and access to treatment, and will discuss to address this rising AUD and ALD disease burden.Vascular liver diseases: A sex-oriented analysis of the literature
Vascular liver diseases are an heterogenous group of diseases that collectively represent an important health issue in the field of liver diseases. This narrative review was elaborated by the Special Interest Group (SIG) “Gender in Hepatology” of the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (AISF). We aimed to review the current knowledge regarding the potential role of biological sex in patients with vascular liver diseases such as splanchnic vein thrombosis, hepatic vein thrombosis, porto-sinusoidal vascular disorder, and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia.Sex disparity and drug-induced liver injury
Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a potentially serious clinical condition that remains a major problem for patients, physicians and those involved in the development of new drugs. Population and hospital-based studies have reported incidences of DILI varying from 1.4 to 19.1/100.000. Overall, females have a 1.5- to 1.7-fold greater risk of developing adverse drug reactions and the female/male ratio increases after the age of 49 years, suggesting a clear susceptibility of DILI after menopause.Application of histology-agnostic treatments in metastatic colorectal cancer
Cancer treatment is increasingly focused on targeting molecular alterations identified across different tumor histologies. While some oncogenic drivers such as microsatellite instability (MSI) and NTRK fusions are actionable with the very same approach regardless of tumor type (“histology-agnostic”), others require histology-specific therapeutic adjustment (“histology-tuned”) by means of adopting specific inhibitors and ad hoc combinations. Among histology-agnostic therapies, pembrolizumab or dostarlimab demonstrated comparable activity in MSI metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) as in other tumors with MSI status (ORR 38% vs 40% and 36% vs 39%, respectively), while entrectinib or larotrectinib proved effective in NTRK rearranged mCRC even though less dramatically than in the overall population (ORR 20% vs 57%, and 50% vs 78%, respectively).
