APASL 2020| Prof.Rino A.Gani, APASL President: The golden age of Hepatology, come together to tide over the crisis with China

Editor: Jiamo Ren Date:2020/07/24

2020/07/24

On March 5, 2020, the 29th Annual meeting of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL2020) officially kicked off in the beautiful and tranquil Bali, Indonesia.

This is the second time for the Indonesian Society of Hepatology to take over the baton and hold the academic grand meeting in 2020 after the Indonesian Society of Hepatology undertook APASL annual meeting for the first time in 2005.

 

Prof. Rino, President of APASL Conference and professor of Indonesian Medical University, deeply interpret the meaning of the conference's theme - Golden Age of Hepatology - in an interview with Hepatology Digest. As President of the APASL Conference, he also introduced the conference changes due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

 

At the preparatory stage of the conference, the outbreak had already started in China, and Prof. Rino A. Gani, on behalf of APASL, wrote A letter to Prof. Xiaoyuan Xu, chairman of hepatology Branch of Chinese Medical Association, expressing sympathy.

<Hepatology Digest>: This meeting is themed the “Golden Age of Hepatology”. What is the meaning of that?

Dr Gani: We can see that in this era, many liver diseases that previously could not be treated properly now have a good chance for treatment. 

Hepatitis C is an example. Five to eight years ago, we could not achieve 100% likelihood of recovery and elimination of hepatitis C. Now, with advancements in hepatitis C treatment, combinations of therapy are showing very good results and efficacy in hepatitis C, even up to a complete response. 

Liver cancer is a devastating illness and even now poses major problems in treatment, but the latest data show the prolongation of survival of patients with liver cancer using TKIs or immunotherapy. 

These are subjects we want to emphasize – that this is a golden age in hepatology. This golden age should encourage all hepatologists to apply their maximum efforts for the benefit of the community. That is the message we want to share.

<Hepatology Digest>: Many Chinese clinicians couldn’t attend the APASL Annual Meeting due to the outbreak of coronavirus disease in 2019. What special considerations are being made by the organizing committee for those not able to attend this year?

Dr Gani: We have collaborated with our Chinese colleagues to do teleconferencing and webcasting at this conference. The four days of the meeting will be webcast, so the meeting can be followed on YouTube outside of China; and for mainland China, we have worked to make webcasts available there for the Chinese doctors.

<Hepatology Digest>: What words of encouragement would you like to share with the Chinese hepatologists?

Dr Gani: Firstly, we share the sadness regarding the coronavirus epidemic and the mortalities that have occurred in China within the profession. Also, the coronavirus has now become a worldwide issue for us all, so we share your concerns. 

I want to be able to share the development of the hepatological disciplines in Asia through our webcasts, and I really hope they can follow the meeting. In so many previous APASLs, our Chinese colleagues make up a large proportion of our attendees, so we are reaching out to maintain our collaborations.