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  • How artificial intelligence (AI) technology is helping doctors understand liver cancer

                      Liver cancer is a serious disease that can be difficult to detect early. When a patient’s symptoms raise a concern, physicians usually use medical images, such as CT scans or MRIs, to look for signs of cancer or abnormal growth in the liver. But sometimes, these images are challenging to read, and small tumors can be missed. That’s where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in.  A recent study looked at how AI is being used to help doctors find and understand liver cancer better.  What is AI?  AI stands for artificial intelligence, which means computer programs that can learn from data and make decisions or predictions. In medicine, AI can look at lots of information, such as diagnostic images of the body, lab test results and patient history, and find patterns that might show signs of disease.  How is AI used in liver cancer?  In liver cancer, AI can be used to:  Find tumors: AI can scan medical images and spot areas that look unusual (this can indicate abnormal tissue growth or cancer cells), even if they’re very small.  Measure tumors: It can outline the shape and size of a tumor, which helps doctors plan treatment.  Predict risks: AI can estimate how likely it is that the cancer will come back or spread.  Help choose treatments: Based on the available data, AI can suggest which treatments might work best for a patient.  What kinds of AI tools are there?  Researchers are using different types of AI tools to help study liver cancer. Each tool works in its own way, but they all have the same goal: to look at medical data and help doctors understand what’s going on inside the body.  Here are the main types: Machine Learning (ML):   Machine learning is a type of computer program that learns from examples. For liver cancer, it might look at thousands of patient records and medical images to learn what cancer looks like. Once it’s trained, ML can analyze new cases and predict

    https://www.hepb.org/blog/artificial-intelligence-ai-technology-helping-doctors-understand-liver-cancer/
  • World Health Day!

      Every year, April 7 marks World Health Day. During the 1948 First Health Assembly, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed this day “to create awareness of a specific health theme to highlight a priority area of concern for the WHO.” Since 1950, World Health Day has been drawing attention to specific health concerns affecting people all over the world, such as mental health, maternal and child care, and climate change. It is celebrated through activities, which extended beyond the day itself, and aids in focusing worldwide attention to global health features. This year, World Health Day will focus on “building a fairer, healthier world for everyone.” With the COVID-19 pandemic undermining recent health gains, people have been experiencing poverty, food insecurity as well as increased inequities in areas, such as gender, social and health. The WHO has developed a year-long campaign as a call to action to eliminate inequities. All over the world, people are struggling to earn a living. Poor housing conditions, lack of education and employment opportunities render vulnerable populations to experience inequalities to clean and safe food, air, water and health services. Consequently, more than 1 billion people living in informal or poorly built settlements face increased challenges to preventing infection and transmission of contagious diseases. According to WHO, the burden of disease is greatest in low to middle-income countries, specifically in Africa, South East Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific regions. With approximately 50% of people living with chronic hepatitis B coming from Asian, Pacific Islander, or African descent, the issue of inequitable access to care becomes a problem for managing hepatitis B. Hepatitis B and the resulting liver cancer are amongst the largest health disparities for these groups. The World Health Day campaign will not only bring a fairer and healthier world to everyone, but it will also work to improve

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/world-health-day/
  • Holidays and Hepatitis B: Treat Your Liver Right

        The holiday season is here! November and December are full with holidays like Diwali, Canadian Thanksgiving, American Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and the New Year just to name a few. This time is often filled with love, happiness, and delicious food. If you or a family member is living with hepatitis B, it is important to eat mindfully during this festive time. Eating healthy is not always a possible option - not with delicious smells filling your kitchen, but you can make healthier choices! Here is a list of action items you can do to help maintain a healthy liver during the holidays: You can contribute a healthy dish - something filled with lean meats, hearty vegetables,  and is low in sodium. Try your best to avoid alcohol and go for drinks with lower amounts of added sugar. Coffee has been associated with improvement in liver enzymes! You can bring your own non-alcoholic beverage like a sparkling flavored drink. Choose fiber-rich foods like beets, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and beans - your plate should look colorful! Click on the veggies for some delicious and healthy recipes! Stay active - take a walk with your family/someone in your COVID social circle or do a free online exercise video. Most importantly, do not feel guilty. Try your best to make healthy choices and not over-indulge, but do not beat yourself up if you do - your next meal can be healthier! Remember that everything you consume is filtered through your liver; your liver never gets a break! The lifestyle tips listed above may seem simple, but they can have a large, positive impact on your health. Sticking to a regular healthy routine even during the holiday season will make it easier to continue those habits all year long! You can also check out our healthy liver tips to see what other actions can be taken to protect your liver. Author: Evangeline Wang, Program Coordinator Contact Information: info@hepb.org

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/holidays-hepatitis-b-treat-liver-right/
  • Fighting the Doom and Gloom: It Takes a Team

    By Anu Hosangadi People generally think liver cancer is non-treatable and non-curable. But that perception needs to change. Diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer have improved so much in the past 20 years that it can be cured if caught early and managed by an experienced health care team. Liver Cancer Connect’s "Fighting the Doom and Gloom" series explains how the right treatment plan  and teamwork offer the best chances for a cure.  More Treatment Options with Early Detection Previously, we talked about how liver cancer can be prevented, and how screening and surveillance save lives by detecting the cancer early. Early detection means more treatment options and a greater chance of treatment success. What Are the Options? Surgery (also called resection) is the treatment of choice if the cancer is detected early, has not spread, and the liver is working well. Liver transplantation— where the diseased liver is replaced with a healthy liver—has advanced remarkably in the past decade, thanks to earlier detection of liver cancer, improved surgical techniques and antiviral treatment, and post-transplant care. But there is a waiting list for people needing liver transplants. For people on a transplant waiting list, or those who cannot undergo surgery, other so-called localized therapies are available. These include ablation using radiofrequency, microwave, or laser procedures, and transarterial chemoembolization or radioembolization.Some of these therapies can also be combined. Chemotherapy has not been very successful against liver cancer and has been largely replaced by targeted therapies. These therapies block specific chemical pathways that the tumor needs for growth. One such targeted drug, sorafenib, is the first FDA-approved oral drug to treat liver tumors that cannot be surgically removed. What’s in the Pipeline? Many other treatments are being developed for liver cancer. Liver Cancer Connect’s Drug Watch regularly updates its list of therapies

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/fighting-the-doom-and-gloom-it-takes-a-team/
  • Vlog: Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill

    Join Michaela Jackson for A Day in the Life of a Public Health Coordinator as she takes you behind the scenes of Advocacy Day - a day of speaking to Congress members and their staffers about hepatitis B. In this episode, participants visit Capitol Hill to ask Congress to support funding for Hepatitis B research and to raise awareness on the topic. Advocacy Day takes place the day before the Hep B United Summit.

    http://www.hepb.org/blog/vlog-advocacy-day-capitol-hill/