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Patients on iron chelator show improvement in liver fibrosis after 3 years
Liver fibrosis was reversed or stabilized in a majority of patients with iron overload beta thalassemia who were treated with deferasirox for 3 or more years, according to a study.
Researchers reviewed histologic analyses of biopsy samples taken at baseline from 219 patients with beta thalassemia and after at least 3 years of treatment with the oral iron chelator deferasirox. Liver fibrosis, necroinflammation, and iron and enzyme overload markers were evaluated, and subjects were assessed for hepatitis C virus infection.
Stability or improvement of Ishak fibrosis staging scores were observed in 82.6% of patients by the time the study concluded. The study authors noted that the therapeutic effect was independent of reduced concentration of liver iron or prior exposure to hepatitis C virus.
The study results “raise new questions regarding the mechanism by which deferasirox leads to improvement in liver fibrosis,” the researchers wrote.
“Our results suggest this mechanism may not be a secondary effect of simply reducing hepatic iron burden. This effect might be due to the fact that deferasirox is concentrated and excreted via the biliary system.”
Disclosure: Deugnier received honoraria from Novartis. Cappellini is a member of the speakers’ bureau at Novartis and received lecture fees from Novartis. Porter received consulting fees, research grant funding and lecture fees from Novartis. Brissot received honoraria and research funding from Novartis. Giannone, Zhang and Griffel are employees of Novartis.