Hepatitis C virus (HCV) will once again be a hot topic at the 2015 European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) conference, which is being held in Vienna from April 22 to 26. However, other liver ailments, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), liver cancer and new noninvasive liver testing tools are expected to get more of the research spotlight than ever before, Medscape reports.

Lately hep C has dominated the conference, as new oral, interferon-free treatments began rolling out in late 2013, completely changing the HCV treatment landscape.

But now, after numerous studies have shown the new hep C cures to be up to 90 percent effective in certain patients, researchers are less interested in testing the best HCV treatments than in figuring out how to get cures to the people who need them. For that reason, conference organizers believe public health and HCV treatment guidelines will dominate the discussions.

In addition, some top studies on NAFLD, an obesity-related liver disease, will be presented this year. Several sessions and seminars will also be devoted to liver transplant technologies, a new generation of noninvasive liver disease tests, and hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of EASL and the 30th anniversary of the Journal of Hepatology, the organization’s publication.

For continuing coverage of EASL 2015, click here.