liver disease

February 20, 2024

Liver disease specialist Ashley Spann receives two career development awards

Vanderbilt’s Ashley Spann, MD, MSACI, is the inaugural recipient of the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program Hepatology Award from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

By Leigh MacMillan
June 22, 2023

Pathways to a healthy liver

Hepatic stellate cells maintain liver mass and function; the signaling factors they use could be exploited therapeutically to promote liver regeneration and inhibit cancerous proliferation, Vanderbilt researchers suggest.

By Bill Snyder
May 25, 2022

Study seeks to improve gender equity for liver transplantation waiting list

Women who need a liver transplant are more likely to spend more time on a waiting list, become too sick for transplant or die compared to men. To improve equity, a recently published Vanderbilt-led study suggests a sex adjustment to criteria for MELD (model for end-stage liver disease), which determines allocation of transplanted livers.

By Matt Batcheldor
April 26, 2022

Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt/CDC investigate mysterious liver disease in children

Physicians at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt are collaborating with the CDC and other hepatologists around the country to help figure out the origins of a mysterious liver disease affecting children ages 1 month to 16 years old.

By Jessica Pasley
September 12, 2019

Study shows benefit of palliative care for liver disease patients

A Vanderbilt study sheds new light on the impact of palliative care.

By Jill Clendening
August 24, 2017

Benefits of palliative care for liver disease patients studied

Past research has proven that palliative care — specialized medical care focused on pain and symptom management as well as psychosocial interventions to improve quality of life — benefits patients with malignant diseases such as aggressive cancers. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) health care providers are now studying whether palliative care can also benefit those with advanced liver disease, a diagnosis that precedes either a life-saving liver transplant or death.

By Jill Clendening