Effect of direct-acting antivirals on future occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma in compensated cirrhotic patients

Risk of Hepatocellular Cancer in U.S. Patients With Compensated Cirrhosis Treated With Direct-Acting Antivirals Versus Interferon

BACKGROUND

Few studies have examined the risk of de novo hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients with cirrhosis who received interferon (IFN)-free direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy relative to patients who received IFN-containing therapy or remained untreated.

AIMS

To estimate the risk of de novo HCC with DAA treatment in cirrhotic HCV patients compared to no anti-HCV treatment and those treated with IFN-based therapy.

METHODS

We identified patients with chronic HCV infection and compensated cirrhosis in the US Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system treated with IFN (2005 to 2013) or DAAs (2013 to 2017). We compared the risk of de novo HCC for patients treated with DAAs, IFN-containing regimens or no treatment after accounting for differences in demographics, alcohol and drug abuse, comorbidities, laboratory values, healthcare utilisation, prior HCV treatment and HCC surveillance.

RESULTS

A total of 53,847 patients contributed to untreated time, 27,147 patients contributed to DAA-treated time (15,641 contributed to both untreated and DAA-treated times) and 6809 patients contributed to IFN-treated time. HCC risk associated with DAA treatment was significantly lower than untreated [adjusted HR: 0.70 (95% CI: 0.65-0.74)]. The risk of HCC was not significantly different for patients treated with DAA compared with those treated with IFN [adjusted HR: 0.98 (95% CI: 0.87-1.10)].

CONCLUSIONS

The study shows a reduced risk of de novo HCC among patients with chronic HCV-related compensated cirrhosis who received DAA treatment compared to that of untreated patients. There were no differences in HCC risk between DAA-treated and IFN-treated patients.

Feasibility of anti-HCV reflex HCV Ag screening strategy in an HCV endemic community

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE

The HCV core antigen (HCV Ag) assay displays high sensitivity and strong correlation with HCV RNA. However, the feasibility of anti-HCV reflex HCV Ag screening in a community-wide setting is rarely discussed.

METHODS

We performed a two-phase community-based hepatitis C screen in an HCV-prone area of central Taiwan. During the training phase, all participants were test for anti-HCV, HCV Ag and HCV RNA to validate sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of HCV Ag. During the validation phase, an anti-HCV reflex HCV Ag screen was conducted based on the results of training phase. Outcomes of the study were presented as positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV).

RESULTS

Of 935 training phase participants, the rate of positive anti-HCV and HCV Ag were 175 (18.7%) and 78 (8.3%), respectively. Test sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of HCV Ag were 97.1%, 98.6%, and 97.8%, respectively. During validation phase, only anti-HCV-positive serum samples were tested for HCV Ag. Of 1932 participant, 285 (14.8%) were anti-HCV-positive. 133 (46.7%) of the 285 anti-HCV-positive samples were HCV Ag-positive. PPV and NPV were 98.4% and 99.3%, respectively. Across the entire participant sample, a significant linear correlation between HCV Ag and HCV RNA concentration was noted (r² = 0.93, p-value<0.001) following log-log transformation.

CONCLUSION

Anti-HCV reflex HCV Ag screening is a feasible strategy for aiding HCV-prone communities.

Hepatocellular metastasis recurrence in liver transplant after treatment with direct antiviral agents

Chronic HCV liver infection is considered one of the main causes of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). For a selected group of patients, orthotopic liver transplantation (OLTx) is the most effective option to cure both liver diseases. After liver transplantation, patients may be at risk of viral infection reactivation and HCC recurrence. HCV recurrence on the transplanted organ can lead to graft cirrhosis and therefore the clearance of virus with antiviral therapies has a pivotal role on the prevention of graft damage. Nowadays, direct antiviral agents (DAAs) represent the choice treatment for HCV recurrence in liver transplanted patients, ensuring high eradication rates. We present the case of a liver transplant recipient who developed, 7 years after OLTx and immediately after a DAAs treatment, a subcutaneous abdominal mass with histological characteristics of HCC.

Recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma after direct acting antiviral treatment for hepatitis C virus infection: Literature review and risk analysis

Although studies suggest decreased incident hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after treatment with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, data are conflicting regarding risk and aggressiveness of recurrence in patients who have a history of treated HCC. This review analyses data available in literature in order to elucidate the impact of DAAs on the risk of HCC recurrence after successful treatment of the tumor. Overall 24 papers were identified. The available data cannot be considered definitive, but the initial alarmist data indicating an increased risk of recurrence have not been confirmed by most subsequent studies. The suggested aggressive pattern (rapid growth and vascular invasion) of tumor recurrence after DAAs still remains to be confirmed. Several limitations of the available studies were highlighted, and should drive future researches. The time-to-recurrence should be computed since the last HCC treatment and results stratified for cirrhosis and sustained viral response. Any comparison with historical series is of limited interest because of a number of biases affecting these studies and differences between enrolled patients. Prospective intention-to-treat analyses will be probably the best contribution to drive clinical practice, provided that a randomized trial can be difficult to design.