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Proceedings of the International Symposium on Hepatology, Taipei, Taiwan

The discovery of Australia antigen, now known as hepatitis B surface antigen, in 1960s opened up a golden era of hepatitis research. In the past three decades, tremendous advances have been achieved. However, new problems have emerged in the light of the accumulating knowledge in viral hepatitis. For example, the identification of hepatitis viruses other than HAV and HBV has raised the problem of multiple virus infection and issues of viral interference. The prevalence of hepatitis virus infections has been reduced by socioeconomic improvements and vaccination against HAV and HBV, however, acute diseases due to these viruses or even small outbreaks may still occur. Liver transplantation has become an effective therapeutic or life saving procedure but post-transplantation viral infection and disease progression are problematic. Hepatocellular carcinoma is difficult to treat but prevention has become possible either through mass HBV vaccination for HBV naive populations or active interferon therapy for chronically infected patients. Great advances have also been accomplished in almost every field of biomedical science, including hepatology, especially since the widespread use of molecular biology. In hepatology, the progress has encompassed a wide spectrum of liver diseases and has ranged from genes to patients. These advances have expanded therapeutic possibilities. Chang Gung Memorial Hospital was inaugurated in 1976. The hepatologists in the Liver Research Unit of this hospital have actively participated in the clinicalhasic research in hepatology and have witnessed the progress of the past two decades. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of our unit and hospital, we invited world renowned hepatologists and scientists to review the most recent progress and developments in hepatology at ‘The International Symposium on Hepatology’ held at the end of 1996. The active participation and contribution of the invited speakers and paper presenters from all over the world, and the enthusiastic attendance of over 500 participants to this Symposium demonstrated the great interest in these issues. Because the content of this symposium has shed light on and may help in the development of new viewpoints and approaches in hepatology, we feel obliged to distribute the proceedings of the Symposium to those interested but unable to attend. In this regard, I would like to express my deep appreciation to all speakers and moderators of the Symposium. Without their generous help, this Symposium would not have been possible. We are particularly grateful to the program advisor, Professor Juei-Low Sung who trained me and has provided me with endless and unconditional support during the past three decades. I personally would like to dedicate this monograph to him on his 80th birthday. The editor would also like to extend his sincere thanks to all members of the Organising Committee for their dedicated efforts. The valuable work of Blackwell Science Asia in preparing this volume for publication is also highly appreciated.