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Risk of Hepatocellular Cancer in U.S. Patients With Compensated Cirrhosis Treated With Direct-Acting Antivirals Versus Interferon.

El-Serag HB, Duong H, Luster M, Kanwal F, Hill DD, Burroughs M, Hernandez C, Haber BA, Larsen LM, Marcinak JF, Wegrzyn LR, Kramer JR. Risk of Hepatocellular Cancer in U.S. Patients With Compensated Cirrhosis Treated With Direct-Acting Antivirals Versus Interferon. Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics. 2025 Feb 7.

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Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined the risk of de novo hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients with cirrhosis who received interferon (IFN)-free direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy relative to patients who received IFN-containing therapy or remained untreated. AIMS: To estimate the risk of de novo HCC with DAA treatment in cirrhotic HCV patients compared to no anti-HCV treatment and those treated with IFN-based therapy. METHODS: We identified patients with chronic HCV infection and compensated cirrhosis in the US Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system treated with IFN (2005 to 2013) or DAAs (2013 to 2017). We compared the risk of de novo HCC for patients treated with DAAs, IFN-containing regimens or no treatment after accounting for differences in demographics, alcohol and drug abuse, comorbidities, laboratory values, healthcare utilisation, prior HCV treatment and HCC surveillance. RESULTS: A total of 53,847 patients contributed to untreated time, 27,147 patients contributed to DAA-treated time (15,641 contributed to both untreated and DAA-treated times) and 6809 patients contributed to IFN-treated time. HCC risk associated with DAA treatment was significantly lower than untreated [adjusted HR: 0.70 (95% CI: 0.65-0.74)]. The risk of HCC was not significantly different for patients treated with DAA compared with those treated with IFN [adjusted HR: 0.98 (95% CI: 0.87-1.10)]. CONCLUSIONS: The study shows a reduced risk of de novo HCC among patients with chronic HCV-related compensated cirrhosis who received DAA treatment compared to that of untreated patients. There were no differences in HCC risk between DAA-treated and IFN-treated patients.




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