[Medicine] 2012 Conference of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) Takes Place in Taipei

[Medicine] 2012 Conference of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) Takes Place in Taipei (Chinese Version)

CNA & National Education Radio (2012/02/16) At the 2012 Conference of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) taking place this year in Taipei International Convention Center (TICC), Taipei from February 16 to February 19, over 3700 medical doctors and researchers from 56 countries gathered with 150 invited lectures and 1018 submitted papers. Taiwan's last hosting of the event was in 2002. Remarkably, the conference opened a special lecture series, “Juei-low Sung Lecture Series,” to honor the father of Taiwan's liver research Professor Juei-low SUNG's contribution to the liver study at a global level.

The conference theme this year was “Advancing Hepatology in New Era: Milestones and Perspectives,” during which new treatment guidelines for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and liver cancer, as well as those for non-alcoholic liver disease, such as fatty liver disease (FLD), were released.

As a conference participant, Academia Sinica's Academician Yun-Fan LIAW indicated, according to these new guidelines, the diagnostic benchmark of liver diseases has been readjusted; for instance, liver puncture is no longer suggested to be a necessary diagnostic measure, beside of which virus quantity, virus genes, and some other checks are also suggested to be part of the diagnostic basis.

Spokesman of the conference, who is also Superintendent of Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital, Ming-lung YU said, during the conference, a set of personalized treatment guidelines determined with the study of hepatitis C genes and some proof supporting a micromolecular new drug against hepatitis B were announced to the public.

The first lecture of the honorary lecture series “Juei-low Sung Lecture Series” will take place this year as well. Juei-low SUNG, the 95-year-old professor at National Taiwan University, also very well known as the father of Taiwan's liver diseases study, brought Taiwan into the international society of liver study by finding the proof of hepatitis B virus to be the main cause of cirrhosis liver cancer in Taiwan, which led to the conclusion that the inoculation of hepatitis B vaccine prevents liver cancer.


Reference:
CNA 2012/02/16 (Chinese)
National Education Radio 2012/02/16 (Chinese)