Professor Massimo Colombo supervises the Hepatology Translational Research Center in Humanitas, since January.
Professor Colombo has dealt for years with diagnoses and treatments of viral hepatitis and liver tumor. He authored many publications on top-rated scientific journals and he made a huge medical and scientific contribution to the treatment of these diseases.
“At Humanitas I supervise the Hepatology Translational Research Center, aiming to apply the new scientific developments to the many clinical records of this Hospital, with particular focus on new-generation medications. The clinic and scientific work of our Center at Humanitas is linked to the educational activity and research that I promote at international level, through the International Liver Foundation of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), that I supervise in Ginevra.
In fact, Humanitas has all the specialists needed for the treatment of acute and chronic liver diseases. Humanitas also takes part in studies about the registration of pharmaceuticals against hepatitis B and C, metabolic steatohepatitis, alcoholic hepatitis, and auto-immune liver diseases”.
Professor Colombo’s research about hepatitis
“I started my international clinic and scientific career working for the prevention and treatment of viral hepatitis, initially in haemophiliac patients and then in traditional patients. I contributed to the studies of Professor Michael Houghton, who identified the hepatitis C virus in 1989. In those years we co-authored many clinical studies about hepatitis C. We revealed the connection between this virus and primary liver cancer, started the interferon therapy studies and just recently we started studying direct antiviral activity medications too. We paid particular attention to the prevention and treatment of hepatitis C in liver transplant patients and recently in kidney transplant recipients, showing the possibility of increasing the offer of kidneys recovering organs from donors with hepatitis C.
In the ’80s our experiences in the treatment of hepatitis B contributed to the use of interferon as the treatment of choice in selected patients with this disease. In the late ’90s we developed protocols that have been validated in many geographical areas for the treatment of patients that were not helped by direct antivirals for hepatitis B”.
Liver cancer
“In the ’80s we contributed to the development of ultrasound imaging monitoring for cirrhotic patients by introducing and developing the basic criteria for an early diagnosis. We also contributed to the development of recommendations to optimize the management of patients with liver cancer”.
