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TUESDAY, Feb. 12, 2019 (HealthDay News) — For adults with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, direct-acting antivirals are associated with a reduced risk for mortality and hepatocellular carcinoma, according to a study published online Feb. 11 in The Lancet<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Fabrice Carrat, Ph.D., from the Sorbonne Universit\u00e9 in Paris, and colleagues conducted a prospective study to compare the incidence of all-cause mortality, hepatocellular carcinoma, and decompensated cirrhosis for patients with chronic HCV treated with direct-acting antivirals and untreated patients. A total of 9,895 patients were included in the analyses and were followed for a median of 33.4 months.<\/p>\n
During follow-up, 7,344 patients initiated treatment with direct-acting antivirals and 2,551 remained untreated at the final follow-up. The researchers found that exposure to direct-acting antivirals correlated with elevated risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (unadjusted hazard ratio, 2.77; 95 percent confidence interval, 2.07 to 3.71) and decompensated cirrhosis (unadjusted hazard ratio, 3.83; 95 percent confidence interval, 2.29 to 6.42). Exposure to direct-acting antivirals correlated with reduced all-cause mortality and hepatocellular carcinoma (adjusted hazard ratios, 0.48 [95 percent confidence interval, 0.33 to 0.70] and 0.66 [95 percent confidence interval, 0.46 to 0.93) but was not associated with decompensated cirrhosis (hazard ratio, 1.14; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.57 to 2.27) after adjustment for confounding variables.<\/p>\n
“Because of the observational design of our study, we cannot formally conclude that inverse associations between direct-acting antiviral treatment and mortality or incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma reflect cause and effect relations,” the authors write.<\/p>\n
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, including companies that provided study funding.<\/p>\n
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