Hepatitis C Virus Elimination Using Direct Acting Antivirals after the Radical Cure of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Suppresses the Recurrence of the Cancer

• Main Authors: Arinaga-Hino, T. (Author), Ide, T. (Author), Iwamoto, H. (Author), Kamachi, N. (Author), Koga, H. (Author), Kuromatsu, R. (Author), Kuwahara, R. (Author), Nakano, M. (Author), Niizeki, T. (Author), Noda, Y. (Author), Okamura, S. (Author), Shimose, S. (Author), Shirachi, M. (Author), Shirono, T. (Author), Takaki, H. (Author), Torimura, T. (Author), Zaizen, Y. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2022
• Subjects: direct-acting antiviral; hepatic resection; hepatitis C virus; hepatocellular carcinoma; propensity score matching; radiofrequency ablation; recurrence
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 It remains unclear whether hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients can be suppressed by the elimination of the virus using direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) after radical HCC treatment. We evaluated the sustained inhibitory effect of DAAs on HCC recurrence after curative treatment. This multicenter retrospective study included 190 HCV-positive patients after radical treatment for early-stage HCC. Patients were classified into the DAA treatment group (n = 70) and the non-DAA treatment group (n = 120) after HCC treatment. After propensity score matching (PSM), 112 patients were assessed for first and second recurrences using the Kaplan–Meier method and analyzed using a log-rank test. The first recurrence rates at 1 and 3 years were 3.6% and 42.1% in the DAA treatment group and 21.7% and 61.9% in the non-DAA treatment group, respectively (p = 0.0026). Among 85 patients who received radical treatment, the second recurrence rate at 3 years was 2.2% in the DAA treatment group and 33.9% in the non-DAA treatment group (p = 0.0128). In HCV-positive patients with early-stage HCC, the first and second recurrences were suppressed by DAA therapy after radical treatment, suggesting that the inhibitory effect of DAA therapy on HCC recurrence was sustained. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).