Management of telaprevir-based triple therapy for hepatitis C virus recurrence post liver transplant

AIM: To characterize management of telaprevir (TVR)-based triple therapy of hepatitis C virus (HCV) reinfection after liver transplantation (LT).METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed safety and efficacy of telaprevir - based triple therapy in a single center cohort of 19 patients with HCV genotype (GT) 1 recurrence after LT, with respect to factors possibly predicting sustained viral response (SVR) or non-SVR. All patients were treated with TVR, pegylated (PEG) and ribavirine (RBV) for 12 wk followed by a dual phase with PEG/RBV for 12 wk in 7 patients and for 36 wk in 5 patients.RESULTS: In total 11/19 (58%) of patients achieved a sustained response. All (11/11) SVR patients showed a rapid viral response at treatment weeks 4 and 11/14 rapid virological response (RVR) patients achieved SVR. Notably, all (7/7) patients who completed 48 wk of therapy and 80% (4/5) patients who completed 24 wk of therapy achieved SVR24. Treatment failure was significantly (P > 0.049) more frequent in GT1a infection (5/7) compared to GT1b (3/12) infection and was associated with emergence of resistance-associated mutations in the NS3 protease domain. Bilirubin level at baseline is also related to SVR (P > 0.030). None of the patients had to discontinue treatment due to side effects.CONCLUSION: RVR, GT and bilirubin are clearly related to achievement of SVR. Providing a thorough patient selection and monitoring, a full course of TVR-based triple therapy in LT patients is feasible and achieves high SVR rates.