Treatment with antiviral drugs may reduce the need for a liver
transplant for people with severe liver damage and hepatitis C, a new
study suggests.
This study included 103 liver transplant
candidates in Europe with severe liver damage and hepatitis C. They were
treated with direct-acting antiviral drug combinations used to treat
and cure people with hepatitis C.
Thirty-five
percent of the patients improved to the point where they were no longer
in urgent need of a liver transplant. And 20 percent got so much better
that they no longer needed a transplant, researchers found.
Currently,
more than 15,000 people in the United States are on the liver
transplant waiting list. About 16 percent will die before receiving a
new liver. And roughly 30 percent of adults on the liver transplant
waiting list have severe liver damage and hepatitis C, the researchers
said.
The study was to be presented Thursday at the International
Liver Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Findings presented at meetings are
generally viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed
journal.
"The results of the study are very encouraging, but a
word of caution is to be mentioned since it is presently unknown how
long the clinical improvement will last," study author Dr. Luca Belli
said in an International Liver Congress news release. Belli is from the
gastroenterology and hepatology liver unit at Niguarda Hospital in
Milan, Italy.
Belli said international studies need to be done to
see how patients taken off the transplant list fare. He said it's
critical to assess the long-term risk of death, development of liver
cancer and further deterioration of the liver.
"These results
show notable improvements in the outlook for some of these patients,"
Laurent Castera, secretary general of the European Association for the
Study of the Liver, said in the news release.
"Treating these
patients with direct-acting antiviral therapy could result in those with
a more pressing need for a liver transplant receiving the donation they
need, potentially reducing the number of deaths that occur in patients
on the waiting list," Castera added.
source- health.usnews
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