Abstract P4-14-12: Effects of hepatitis C virus infection on the safety of chemotherapy for breast cancer patients: A retrospective chart analysis

Abstract

Abstract Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major health problem in the United States and breast cancer is the second most common cancer in US women. Despite these prevalent diseases, there is limited information available on the effects of a concurrent HCV infection among breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and the problems they face during their treatment. There are limited guidelines for chemotherapy treatment in HCV positive breast cancer patients. Methods: We performed a retrospective 2:1 matched case control analysis on breast cancer patients with a confirmed active HCV infection who received chemotherapy at Boston Medical Center between January 2000 and April 2015. Cases with HCV infection (n=6) were matched with controls (n=12) who were HCV negative. The controls were matched on age (decade) of diagnosis, stage of breast cancer, and intended chemotherapy regimen. We investigated dose delays, dose changes, hospitalization, hematologic reasons for dose delays, and variation in blood counts during the treatment period in these patients from their medical records. Statistical analysis was done using R version 3.4.0 to compare these outcomes of interest between the two groups. Fisher’s exact and Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to compare the categorical and continuous variables respectively. Results: The HCV positive group was at a significantly higher risk of dose delays (100% vs. 33%, p = 0.01), dose changes (67% vs. 8%, p = 0.02), and hospitalization during chemotherapy (83% vs. 25%, p = 0.04) than their HCV matched controls. The risk of getting a dose delay due to hematotoxicity was significantly higher in the HCV positive group than the HCV negative group (83% vs. 8%, p = 0.003). The HCV positive patients took longer time to complete their treatment cycles than the HCV negative group. Conclusions: Chronic HCV infection in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy may be complicated by their active HCV infection. Treatment challenges due to dose changes, dose delays and hospitalizations were significantly more common when compared to controls. Chemotherapy delays and dose changes during breast cancer treatment has a negative consequence. In the era of curative treatment for HCV, future studies focused on the effect and treatment of concurrent HCV and breast cancer treatment is warranted. Citation Format: Saptaparni Ghosh, Minghua L Chen, Janice Weinberg, Naomi Y Ko. Effects of hepatitis C virus infection on the safety of chemotherapy for breast cancer patients: A retrospective chart analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-14-12.