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Is there increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence in liver transplant patients with direct-acting antiviral therapy?

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Abstract

Background

Recently, a controversy has emerged: is the rate of recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) higher following treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) with direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy? However, the risk of HCC recurrence has not been studied in liver transplant (LTx) recipients who received DAA therapy. The aim of the present study is to compare the rate of HCC recurrence in LTx recipients who did or did not receive DAA therapy.

Patients and methods

Sixty-three patients received LTx with HCC. Twenty-seven (42.9%) with HCV received DAA therapy (Group A), 20 (31.7%) with HCV did not receive DAA therapy (Group B), and 16 (25.4%) did not have HCV (Group C).

Results

In group A, three (11%), in group B, one (5%), and in group C, none had recurrence of HCC. Actuarial 4-year recurrence-free survival was 88.9, 95, and 100% in group A, B, and C, respectively (p = 0.37). Group A was subdivided into two groups for comparison with Group B: A1 included five patients who had end of treatment response (ETR) without sustained virological response (SVR), and A2 included 20 patients who achieved SVR. Three patients from A1 had HCC recurrence and no patients from A2 had HCC recurrence. (p = 0.0038; group A1, A2, and B).

Conclusions

The rate of HCC recurrence in LTx patients with DAA therapy was significantly higher with ETR, without SVR, after DAA therapy compared to patients with SVR or patients who did not receive DAA therapy. LTx recipients with HCC receiving DAA therapy requires further studies.

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Acknowledgements

Nancy Sabb, provided the accuracy on clinical details on the transplant recipients. Michelle Carraher, for identifying the study population and for providing demographic details from the transplant data base. Jenna Weller, for typing and proofreading.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Mail Code H062, 500 University Drive, PO Box 850, Hershey, PA, 17033-0850, USA

    Ashokkumar Jain, Danielle Miller, Takehiko Dohi & Zakiyah Kadry

  2. Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, USA

    Ian Schreibman, Thomas R. Riley III & Karen L. Krok

  3. CSL Behring, 1020 First Ave, King of Prussia, PA, USA

    Rajeev Sharma

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  1. Ashokkumar Jain
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Contributions

Research design: AJ, ZK. Acquisition and analysis of data: AJ, ZK, DM, TR, RS. Interpretation of data: all authors. Drafting of the manuscript: all authors. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: all authors. Study supervision: AJ, ZK.

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Correspondence to Ashokkumar Jain.

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Conflicts of interest

Ashokkumar Jain, Danielle Miller, Ian Schreibman, Thomas R. Riley III, Karen L. Krok, Takehiko Dohi, Rajeev Sharma, and Zakiyah Kadry have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical standards

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. As this was a retrospective study, the requirement for informed consent was waived by the institutional review board.

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Jain, A., Miller, D., Schreibman, I. et al. Is there increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence in liver transplant patients with direct-acting antiviral therapy?. Hepatol Int 13, 190–198 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12072-019-09930-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12072-019-09930-x

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