MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Flavio Vincenti, M.D Clinical Professor of Medicine and Surgery Departments of Medicine and Surgery Endowed Chair in Kidney Transplantation University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, CA 94143 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Vincenti: This is a phase 3 study of belacept immunosuppression as compared to cyclosporine based immunosuppression in renal transplant recipients randomly assigned to 2 treatments arms of belatacept and a controlled arm consisting of cyclosporine. The main finding of this study is that Belatacept, a fusion receptor protein that blocks co-stimulation and is administered intravenously on the maintenance of a 4 weekly maintenance therapy, had superior outcomes at 5 and 7 years as compared to patients on a CsA-based regimen. The 7 year data show that patients on either arm of belatacept had a 43 percent risk reduction of deaths or grafts loss as compared to patients treated with cyclosporine. In addition, belatcept patients had significantly better preservation of renal function throughout the 7 years of follow up and had lower incidence of donor specific antibodies. Nephrotoxicity from cyclosporine and donor specific antibodies are important causes of late graft loss. (more…)