Reduction therapy of ALT levels and prevention of HCC development in patients with HCV-associated cirrhosis

Abstract

1529 Background: Approximately 30 million people worldwide are estimated to have liver cirrhosis (LC) associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV). In addition, patients with HCV-associated liver cirrhosis (HCV-LC) have a high risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Namely, 60–80% of the patients may develop HCC in 10 years. So, preventing these patients from developing HCC is an urgent problem to be solved. To find a way to prevent the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from hepatitis C-virus associated liver cirrhosis (HCV-LC), an analysis of the HCV-LC patients who had reduction therapy of ALT levels was performed. Patients and Methods: Seventy-four consecutive HCV-LC patients of Child Stage A were followed for > 10 years for the development of HCC. They were divided into two groups: In group A, the reduction therapy for ALT levels is aggressively performed and in group B, the reduction therapy was not performed aggressively. Results: Initial ALT was higher in group A than in group B, but there was no significance. After reduction therapy, ALT level was significantly high in group A in the first year. However, there were no significant differences between ALT levels in groups A and B of after the second year. In total, 39 patients out of 74 (52.7%) developed HCC within 13 years from the beginning of the study and 35 patients did not developed HCC in the same observation period. The incidence of HCC development in group B [65.7% (23/35)] was significantly higher than in group A [41.0% (16/39)] (p=0.039). The median HCC developing time in group A (12.8 years) was significantly longer than in group B (3.8 years) (p=0.0013). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that reduction therapy and ALT levels were the significant factors affecting HCC development. The incidence of HCC development in group B was 5.8 times higher than in group A. The high and unclassified ALT groups were 4.6 times and 2.2 times higher than in the low ALT group. Conclusion: The chances of surviving for more than 10 years without developing HCC in the HCV-LC patients of Child Stage A were far more favorable in group A than in group B. These results suggest that aggressive reduction therapy for ALT levels in HCV-LC patients could significantly prevent HCC development. No significant financial relationships to disclose.