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American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting
October 29, 2013
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PI-based therapy for hepatitis C showed promising results in real-life urban setting

SAN DIEGO — The success of protease inhibitor-based therapy among African-Americans with hepatitis C can be reproduced outside of clinical trials, Robert Kung, MD, of Emory University said during the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting.

“You can interpret the SVR [sustained virologic response] rates that were done in the trials and expect to see those in a real-life clinical practice,” he said.

African-Americans tend to have lower SVR rates than other populations with pegylated interferon/ribavirin therapy, but demonstrate significantly improved SVR rates with HCV NS34A protease inhibitors in clinical trials, Kung said.

To examine the real-life response, researchers conducted a prospective observational study analyzing the first 25 consenting patients who initiated PI-based HCV therapy at a single center that serves a predominantly urban African-American population.

Of the patients, 76% were treatment naive and 20% were prior nonresponders. Forty percent were obese, 28% had diabetes, and 72% had stage 2-4 fibrosis.

Eight patients completed the PI-based therapy, and all achieved early virologic response and end-of-treatment response. Seven patients demonstrated rapid virologic response and extended rapid virologic response.

Of the remaining patients, six remained on therapy and 11 discontinued therapy due to nonresponse (32%) or intolerance (64%).

“Seventy percent of the patients who were able to complete therapy qualified for response-guided therapy of shortened duration of 24 weeks instead of the full 48 weeks,” Kung said, while the study also noted longer follow-up was needed to better determine SVR rates in the population.

Disclosure: Kung reports no relevant financial disclosures.

For more information:

Kung R. #816: Success with Protease Inhibitor-Based Hepatitis C Therapy in an Urban, Primary Care-Based Hepatitis C Clinic. Presented at: the 2013 American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting; Oct. 11-16, San Diego.