Conference Reports from NATAP
Summary from AASLD 2017 for Hepatitis C HCV: Game over?
Jurgen K. Rockstroh M.D., Professor of Medicine
Department of Medicine I, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Introduction
The AASLD Liver Meeting was held in October from 20-24th, 2017 in Washington DC, USA. Many regular AASLD attendees will still remember the completely packed late breaker sessions from recent years, full of phase II and III new direct acting antiviral (DAA) combination trials in varying patient populations. At this year AASLD Liver Meeting, no new DAA combination study results were presented in these sessions but rather were replaced by new drug trials for treatment of NASH or primary sclerosing cholangitis. Indeed, the only two new dual and triple DAA combinations, which were presented at the meeting, were accompanied by press releases from the respective companies Merck and Janssen, which announced the termination of their DAA development programs (1-2). Nevertheless, important new findings from the HCV research space were reported including issues around HCV screening, how to improve linkage to care, and treatment results from many different patient populations and real-life cohorts as well as post HCV cure monitoring. Reassuringly, the high success rates of all oral DAA therapy was further confirmed from a wealth of data particularly from somewhat more challenging HCV patient populations including: PWIDs, patients with concomitant advanced kidney disease, patients before and after kidney or liver transplantation, HCV genotype 3 infection and patients with unfavorable HCV disease characteristics, including compensated and decompensated cirrhosis (3-11). However, there was also data on shorter treatment durations for patients with more favorable HCV disease characteristics such as for non-cirrhotic GT1b patients (12). In addition, there was also new data around retreatment of previous DAA failures (with documented resistance development) with new DAA combinations (13-14). In the area of HIV-coinfection, clearly outcomes of the ACTG trial on treatment of acute hepatitis C in HIV-seropositive individuals for eight weeks with ledipasvir/sofosbuvir (LDV/SOF) were also new and noteworthy (15). Of interest were also reports on the increases in acute HCV infections among HIV-seropositive men who have sex with men (MSM) and the high risk of reinfection in particular patient populations (16-17). Further data was also presented on the question whether there is an increased risk for hepatocellular carcinoma in DAA treated patients from large real-life cohorts and what impact SVR has on clinical endpoints under continued follow-up (18-22).
The following AASLD summary report tries to capture the major new findings and results presented around the topics raised above, as well as to outline some of the status reports of HCV treatment implementation on a global level. Clearly, the successes of modern HCV DAA combination therapy still have not reached all in need for these treatments.
Summary from AASLD 2017 for Hepatitis C HCV: Game over?
Jurgen K. Rockstroh M.D., Professor of Medicine
Department of Medicine I, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Introduction
The AASLD Liver Meeting was held in October from 20-24th, 2017 in Washington DC, USA. Many regular AASLD attendees will still remember the completely packed late breaker sessions from recent years, full of phase II and III new direct acting antiviral (DAA) combination trials in varying patient populations. At this year AASLD Liver Meeting, no new DAA combination study results were presented in these sessions but rather were replaced by new drug trials for treatment of NASH or primary sclerosing cholangitis. Indeed, the only two new dual and triple DAA combinations, which were presented at the meeting, were accompanied by press releases from the respective companies Merck and Janssen, which announced the termination of their DAA development programs (1-2). Nevertheless, important new findings from the HCV research space were reported including issues around HCV screening, how to improve linkage to care, and treatment results from many different patient populations and real-life cohorts as well as post HCV cure monitoring. Reassuringly, the high success rates of all oral DAA therapy was further confirmed from a wealth of data particularly from somewhat more challenging HCV patient populations including: PWIDs, patients with concomitant advanced kidney disease, patients before and after kidney or liver transplantation, HCV genotype 3 infection and patients with unfavorable HCV disease characteristics, including compensated and decompensated cirrhosis (3-11). However, there was also data on shorter treatment durations for patients with more favorable HCV disease characteristics such as for non-cirrhotic GT1b patients (12). In addition, there was also new data around retreatment of previous DAA failures (with documented resistance development) with new DAA combinations (13-14). In the area of HIV-coinfection, clearly outcomes of the ACTG trial on treatment of acute hepatitis C in HIV-seropositive individuals for eight weeks with ledipasvir/sofosbuvir (LDV/SOF) were also new and noteworthy (15). Of interest were also reports on the increases in acute HCV infections among HIV-seropositive men who have sex with men (MSM) and the high risk of reinfection in particular patient populations (16-17). Further data was also presented on the question whether there is an increased risk for hepatocellular carcinoma in DAA treated patients from large real-life cohorts and what impact SVR has on clinical endpoints under continued follow-up (18-22).
The following AASLD summary report tries to capture the major new findings and results presented around the topics raised above, as well as to outline some of the status reports of HCV treatment implementation on a global level. Clearly, the successes of modern HCV DAA combination therapy still have not reached all in need for these treatments.
Continue reading... http://www.natap.org/2017/AASLD/AASLD_148.htm
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