Premium
Flexible and individualized treatment to achieve sustained viral response for recurrent hepatitis C in liver transplant recipients
Author(s) -
Lee W.C.,
Wu T.J.,
Chou H.S.,
Lee C.F.,
Chan K.M.,
Cheng S.S.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of viral hepatitis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.329
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1365-2893
pISSN - 1352-0504
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2893.2009.01233.x
Subject(s) - medicine , viral hepatitis , hepatitis c , liver transplantation , complete response , virology , immunology , transplantation , chemotherapy
Summary. Hepatitis C recurrence after liver transplantation is universal and is a major cause of long‐term graft failure. Improving the effectiveness of recurrent hepatitis C treatment is extremely important. We studied 35 anti‐hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐positive patients who underwent liver transplantation. Among the 35 patients, 25 patients had recurrent hepatitis C and received antiviral treatment. HCV RNA load after liver transplantation was increased by 3.68‐fold. The antiviral treatment regimen comprised pegylated‐interferon (180 μg) every 2 weeks and ribavirin at a dose of 200–400 mg every day. The treatment duration was flexible and individualized, and depended on viral response to treatment. The dosage of tacrolimus was decreased gradually to minimize immunocompromise. Median (interquartile) serum level of tacrolimus was 6.9 (6–8.9) ng/mL at initiation of treatment and 3.8 (3.6–5) ng/mL at the end of treatment. One patient (4.0%) was withdrawn from the study, and three patients (12%) died of infection during treatment. At end of treatment, 18 of 25 patients (72%) were negative for serum HCV RNA. After an additional 6 months following the end of treatment, 16 of the 25 patients (64%) had sustained viral response (SVR) and only two patients had HCV relapse. The 1‐year, 3‐year and 5‐year survival rates were 91.4%, 84.5% and 84.5% for all patients and 88.0%, 82.8% and 82.8% for the 25 patients who received antiviral therapy. In conclusion, recurrent HCV infection is an important issue in liver transplantation. The flexible regimen of antiviral therapy and individualized immunosuppressive agents that was applied in this study achieved a SVR rate of 64%.