Hepatitis C News

BOSTON —  All patients with hepatitis C, even those with decompensated cirrhosis, experienced improved patient-reported outcomes after treatment with direct-acting antivirals with or without ribavirin, according to findings presented at The Liver Meeting 2016.

BOSTON — In this exclusive video from The Liver Meeting, Eric J. Lawitz, MD, vice president of scientific and research development at The Texas Liver Institute and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center, discusses results of the C-CREST-1 clinical study where treatment-naive patients with hepatitis C genotype 1, 2 and 3 infection showed high sustained virologic response rates after treatment with MK-3682, MK-8408 and grazoprevir.

BOSTON — Although HCV reactivation occurred in approximately one-quarter of patients with cancer who were receiving chemotherapy, less than half of those patients experienced hepatitis flare, according to findings presented at The Liver Meeting 2016.

BOSTON — Patients with hepatitis C infection cirrhosis treated with oral direct-acting antiviral agents were not at increased risk for developing hepatocellular carcinoma, according to study findings presented here.

BOSTON — Wait-listing for liver transplantation among decompensated cirrhotics decreased by approximately 30% between the interferon and direct-acting antiviral eras, according to findings presented at The Liver Meeting 2016.

The question of whether and when to treat patients with hepatitis C who also have uncontrolled alcohol use disorder has plagued clinicians for nearly 30 years . There are a number of arguments for and against. For example, those in favor of treating immediately might suggest, simply, that if a patient has a disease, and if there is an available cure for that disease, it should be cured. Conversely, other clinicians might argue that even if a patient is cured of HCV, excessive alcohol use may lead to high-risk behaviors that predispose the patient to reinfection.

Just when HCV therapy seemed as if it has never been more straightforward, we have witnessed the emergence of an unexpected caveat regarding HCV-infected patients with concomitant hepatitis B virus infection or, seemingly, even markers of what most people would have regarded as prior infection that has resolved.

Direct-acting antiviral therapies have had far-reaching consequences in the treatment of hepatitis C, and that has extended to patients awaiting potentially life-saving liver transplant.

In this issue, HCV Next asks five questions of Sammy Saab, MD, MPH, professor of Medicine and Surgery, assistant professor of nursing and head of Outcomes Research in Hepatology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Researchers estimated that more than 800,000 people in the United States with chronic hepatitis C virus infection may have advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis and need care. However, laboratory testing data indicated that only half of these patients were evaluated for antiviral treatment.