13 Jan Combination Medications May Cure Hepatitis C In Six Weeks

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Anita Kohli MD
Critical Care Medicine Department
NIH Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
Clinical Research Directorate/Clinical Monitoring Research Program, Leidos Biomedical Research,  National Laboratory for Cancer Research,
Frederick, MD,

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Dr. Kohli: While therapy using for 8-12 weeks of all oral directly acting antivirals (DAAs) has been shown to result in high SVR “cure” rates for hepatitis C, the optimal combination and minimum duration required for treatment of hepatitis C has not been defined. The development of the simplest, short duration regimen for hepatitis C possible with high cure rates is important given the ~180 million people infected globally.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Kohli: Combination therapy with  directly acting antivirals may allow for the further shortening of treatment duration for hepatitis C. Using the right combination of DAA’s therapy for as short as six-weeks may results in high rates of SVR.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Kohli: Future studies with larger number of participants are required to confirm the findings here that six weeks of combination directly acting antivirals may be sufficient for the treatment of select patients. In additions further evaluation these six week regimens should be done (and are in fact underway) in patients with more advanced liver disease including cirrhosis. Given the high SVR rates seen in this study, evaluation of even shorter treatment durations (i.e.- four weeks) should be completed.

Citation:
Virological response after 6 week triple-drug regimens for hepatitis C: a proof-of-concept phase 2A cohort study
Anita Kohli MD,Anuoluwapo Osinusi MD,Zayani Sims BS,Amy Nelson RN,Eric G Meissner MD,Lisa L Barrett MD,Dimitra Bon MS,Miriam M Marti BS,Rachel Silk RN,Colleen Kotb NP,Chloe Gross RN,Tim A Jolley RN,Sreetha Sidharthan BS,Tess Petersen BS,Kerry Townsend BA,D’Andrea Egerson RN,Rama Kapoor MD,Emily Spurlin BA,Michael Sneller MD,Michael Proschan PhD,Eva Herrmann PhD,Richard Kwan PAC,Gebeyehu Teferi MD,Rohit Talwani MD,Gabbie Diaz RN,David E Kleiner MD,Brad J Wood MD,Jose Chavez MD,Stephen Abbott MD,William T Symonds PharmD,G Mani Subramanian MD,Phillip S Pang MD,John McHutchison MD,Michael A Polis MD,Anthony S Fauci MD,Henry Masur MD,Dr Shyam Kottilil MD
The Lancet – 13 January 2015
DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61228-9

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Last Updated on January 13, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD