Researchers stress importance of personalized medicine in patients with metabolic liver disease

MADRID, September 28 (European press) –

Researchers at CIBER for Liver and Digestive Diseases (CIBEREHD), after five years of monitoring patients with metabolic liver disease, have discovered the importance of personalized medicine.

The national and multicenter study, published in the journal “Liver International”, was led by Javier Ampuero and Manuel Romero Gómez, co-chairs of the SeLiver Group, which belongs to the field of hepatology, gastroenterology and inflammation at the Biomedical Institute of Seville and physicians of the University Hospital Virgen del Rocio.

The study was developed in a HEPAmet registry setting, and included approximately 2,000 patients with a histological diagnosis of hepatic metabolic steatosis (EHmet), and it has been described that histological characteristics that determine steatohepatitis are reduced in the presence of advanced liver disease.

“Our findings show that there are patients who were not included in clinical trials and are therefore not receiving treatment that could benefit them, because, although they continued to have liver disease, they lost some of the histological elements common to the diagnosis,” concludes Ampuero.

Furthermore, those patients with steatohepatitis with and without inflammatory activity showed very similar clinical characteristics and outlook, with rates of progression to cirrhosis higher than those patients with simple steatosis.

This collaborative project, carried out between more than 30 Spanish hospitals and 13 researchers belonging to the CIBEREHD groups, highlights the importance of personalized medicine and individual assessment of patients prior to their inclusion in experimental treatments.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, recently renamed metabolic fatty liver disease (MetHE), is one of the most prevalent liver diseases worldwide and is currently the third indication for liver transplantation.

Diagnosed by liver biopsy, patients are classified into simple steatosis, initially benign steatohepatitis, and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which presents
It has an inflammatory component and can be associated with various cases of fibrosis that can lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.