New approaches to the management of hepatitis C in haemophilia in 2012

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is common in patients with Haemophilia. As in other patients, its natural history is characterized by disease progression towards cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Many patients with hereditary bleeding disorders infected with HCV are also infected with HIV which is a factor of faster liver disease progression. In the past years, major progress has been made in the management of hepatitis C with the development of non invasive tools to assess liver fibrosis stage, i.e. fibroscan and biomarkers. With these tools, it is now possible to predict with good accuracy the liver disease stage and to take treatment decision. The landscape of antiviral therapy has evolved rapidly, especially for patients infected with HCV genotype 1. Triple therapy with interferon, ribavirin and protease inhibitors has been approved recently, the results of clinical trials showing a clear added benefit in terms of sustained virologic response in naive patients compared to interferon - ribavirin combination therapy. However, results are less promising in cirrhotic patients who failed a previous line of therapy, with a higher rate of side effects and a lower rate of virologic response in patients who qualified as null responders to IFN based therapy. Clinical trials with triple therapy are ongoing in HCV-HIV coinfected patients. Furthermore, new IFN free regimen relying on the combination of direct acting antivirals are currently being evaluated in HCV genotype 1 and non-1 infected patients. These advances provide new hope in the management of chronic hepatitis C, including patients with hereditary bleeding disorders. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.