Come join us during EASL Congress next week in Barcelona, Spain, for the A-TANGO Networking Session on Friday, 29 May 2026, from 10:00–10:30 h (CEST), at the "Cirrhosis & Complications" Track Hub (Track Hub 6). The interactive session, titled “The A-TANGO Score: A Novel Tool for Risk Stratification and Clinical Endpoints in ACLF,” will feature presentations by Cornelius Engelmann (Charité) and Rajiv Jalan (UCL) and offer time for discussion and Q&A. The speakers will present and discuss emerging data from the A-TANGO collaboration on outcome-calibrated approaches to acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF), highlighting how the A-TANGO organ failure score may improve identification of high-risk patients compared with current consensus-based definitions. The session will also explore implications for clinical decision-making, trial design, and regulatory endpoints, alongside ongoing international efforts to harmonise ACLF definitions ahead of the global consensus process. We look forward to lively discussions and shaping future directions in ACLF research together with you!

We are pleased to share a new collaborative publication exploring consensus- versus outcome-based definitions of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). Just published in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Hepatology by Verma N. et al., the study compares the 2025 consensus ACLF framework with the outcome-calibrated A-TANGO classification across large cohorts from India and China (>4,900 patients combined). The findings show that the two frameworks identify substantially different patient populations, with the consensus definition potentially under-recognising a sizeable group of patients at clinically actionable risk despite high short-term mortality. The study highlights the importance of preserving the link between ACLF definitions, organ failure, and mortality risk when developing future global consensus frameworks. This work represents a major international collaboration between investigators from UCL, Charité, PGIMER Chandigarh, multiple Chinese ACLF centres, and other international experts.

We celebrate the new consortium publication by Cornelius Engelmann et al. (2026) that introduces the A-TANGO organ failure (OF) score, a refined tool for diagnosing acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) in patients with cirrhosis and acute decompensation. Developed using data from 3,896 patients in Europe and Latin America and validated in large cohorts from India and China, the score updates thresholds for organ dysfunction and adds a new ACLF grade 4 to better capture severely ill patients. Compared with the widely used CLIF-C OF score, A-TANGO improves detection of ACLF (24% to 36%) while maintaining strong prediction of 28- and 90-day mortality. The study also introduces two related prognostic models. Together, these tools provide a more accurate framework for risk stratification, treatment evaluation, and the design of clinical trials in ACLF.