Ewha Womans University · Medicine
Professor Han Ah Lee's research lab specializes in hepatology and metabolic liver disease, with a strong focus on the intersection of metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), cardiovascular risk, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The lab investigates the pathophysiology, prognostic markers, and treatment outcomes in chronic liver diseases, particularly the transition from immune-tolerant to active hepatitis B, the role of immune cells like NK cells in HCC progression, and the impact of vascular invasion on HCC prognosis. The team also explores longitudinal risk factors and personalized management strategies for MASLD-related cardiovascular disease.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Over one-third of Korean adults have MASLD/related SLD and bear a high CVD risk.
Summary Background Anti‐viral therapy is not indicated for patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in the immune‐tolerant phase. Aims To investigate the cumulative incidence of phase change and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and independent predictors for phase change in patients with CHB in immune‐tolerant phase. Methods In total, 946 patients in immune‐tolerant phase, defined as hepatitis B e antigen positivity, HBV‐DNA >20 000 IU/mL and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ≤40 IU/L, between 1989
Decreased NK cell activity is significantly associated with the advanced stage of HCC, and the increased recurrence risk of HCC after curative treatment.
The recurrence rate of HCC after curative treatment gradually decreased over time. Two years after treatment, when tumor-related factors lose their prognostic implications, may be used as a cutoff to define the boundary between early and late recurrence of HCC.
MASLD status, cardiometabolic risk factor count, and their longitudinal changes were all associated with the risk of incident CVD. Accurate identification of these markers may facilitate personalized management of MASLD-related CVD risk.
Major vessel invasion is frequently observed in locally advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The most commonly involved major vessel is the portal vein; however, approximately 4% of patients with HCC have inferior vena cava (IVC) and/or right atrium (RA) invasion. Although these conditions have dismal prognoses, local treatments have not been regularly administered because they may affect systemic circulation. Owing to recent technological advances, various local treatments including surgery
The ALPs score calculated using serum AFP level, AFP-L3 fraction, and PIVKA-II level showed improved accuracy in HCC diagnosis.
Lupus enteritis is a rare, severe complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), needing prompt diagnosis and proper management. However, SLE rarely presents as lupus enteritis at the time of initial diagnosis. Thus, delayed diagnosis and misdiagnosis are common. We report a case of a 25-year-old woman with lupus panenteritis. The patient had multiple hospitalizations for abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea, initially without any other symptoms suggestive of SLE, but was later observed to
Personalized treatments tailored to individual patients can improve the prognosis of elderly patients with HCC to a level comparable to that of non-elderly patients.
Surgery can yield a favorable survival outcome, whereas EBRT can be widely considered for patients, including those with inferior clinical profiles. Further studies are warranted to determine the possibility of improving the clinical outcomes of surgery accompanied by EBRT.
We investigated the efficacy and safety of surgery and external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) involving the inferior vena cava (IVC) and/or right atrium (RA) through a comparative meta-analysis. A systematic search of PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane library was performed for entries until July 2020. Eighteen studies with 22 cohorts were included, encompassing 755 patients. The pooled median overall survival (OS) and 1- and 2-year OS rates wer
The role of hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) level in defining clinical phase and predicting prognosis of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) has not been fully studied. CHB patients who had undergone liver biopsy in Korea University Medical Center were included. Patients with liver cirrhosis were excluded. The associations of HBcrAg level with CHB phase, and nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA)-induced hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion were analyzed. In total, 387 patients (median follow-up of
gov NCT05309642. Registered on April 4, 2022.
Open papers in the app to read, cite, and organize with AI.
