Direct-Acting Antivirals for Hep C Might Worsen Liver Cancer
Neil Osterweil
November 13, 2016 BOSTON ? Direct-acting antiviral agents do not appear to increase risk for liver cancer in patients with hepatitis C infection and cirrhosis, but the drugs could make existing but previously undetected cancers worse and harder to treat, according to results from a large-scale prospective study.
"An unexpected finding in this population is that 50% of the patients who developed a tumor early in the course of treatment or just after stopping treatment developed a more aggressive type of tumor than what we usually see in the course of disease," said lead investigator Alfredo Alberti, MD, professor of gastroenterology at the University of Padova in Italy...
Neil Osterweil
November 13, 2016 BOSTON ? Direct-acting antiviral agents do not appear to increase risk for liver cancer in patients with hepatitis C infection and cirrhosis, but the drugs could make existing but previously undetected cancers worse and harder to treat, according to results from a large-scale prospective study.
"An unexpected finding in this population is that 50% of the patients who developed a tumor early in the course of treatment or just after stopping treatment developed a more aggressive type of tumor than what we usually see in the course of disease," said lead investigator Alfredo Alberti, MD, professor of gastroenterology at the University of Padova in Italy...