At the 2017 annual meeting of the American Liver Disease Association, a large observational study reported that the use of direct antiviral (DAA) therapy to eradicate hepatitis C virus (HCV) can reduce the risk of liver cancer by 71%. In patients with cirrhosis and non-cirrhosis, the risk of liver cancer is reduced. In the United States, most primary liver cancer occurs in people infected with HCV. Researchers at the University of Washington hypothesized that the eradication of HCV could eliminate or at least significantly reduce the risk of Ung thư gan. However, before HCV eradication, the patient may have developed cirrhosis or liver fibrosis. Even if HCV eradication may be too late, there is still a risk of developing liver cancer. In addition, recent studies suggest that the risk of liver cancer in HCV-infected patients who have received new DAA treatment is still increased. The researchers analyzed 62,051 patients with HCV infection who received 83,695 antiviral treatments. After 180 days of antiviral treatment, an average of 3,271 new liver cancers occurred during a follow-up of 6.1 years. Patients with cirrhosis who failed treatment had the highest incidence of liver cancer (3.25 / 100 person-years), followed by patients with cirrhosis who had sustained virological response (SVR) (1.97 / 100 person-years), and patients who had no cirrhosis but failed treatment (0.87 / 100 person-years) and patients without cirrhosis who obtained SVR (0.24 / 100 person-years). Multivariate analysis showed that after adjusting for potential confounders, SVR was significantly associated with a lower risk of liver cancer, regardless of whether DAA treatment (aHR = 0.29), DAA combined with interferon treatment (aHR = 0.48), or interferon only treatment (aHR = 0.32).
Các nhà nghiên cứu nhấn mạnh rằng một nghiên cứu tại Đại hội Bệnh Gan Châu Âu năm ngoái cho thấy bệnh nhân HCV được điều trị bằng DAA dường như có tỷ lệ tái phát ung thư gan cao hơn. Kết quả này gây nhiều tranh cãi, vì mối quan hệ giữa HCV và ung thư gan cho thấy việc loại bỏ HCV sẽ làm giảm nguy cơ ung thư gan chứ không phải làm tăng nguy cơ ung thư gan. Kết luận của nghiên cứu quan sát này rất chắc chắn rằng việc loại bỏ HCV bằng DAA có thể làm giảm 71% nguy cơ ung thư gan, cho thấy rằng không cần phải lo lắng về việc loại bỏ HCV sẽ làm tăng nguy cơ ung thư gan. Việc loại bỏ HCV là làm giảm nguy cơ ung thư gan.
