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Black and Hispanic patients with hepatitis C virus infection were less likely to achieve sustained virologic response with direct-acting antiviral agents compared with white patients within the U.S. Veterans Affairs health care system, according to recent study results.
Further, black patients with HCV genotype 1 infection who were treated with Harvoni (ledipasvir/sofosbuvir, Gilead) monotherapy were significantly less likely to achieve SVR compared with white patients when treated for 8 weeks, but not 12 weeks, leading investigators to suggest that these short ledipasvir/sofosbuvir regimens be avoided in black patients.
“Different racial and ethnic groups in the United States are known to have different responses to traditional, interferon-based HCV regimens,” researchers wrote. “It is not yet clear whether the effectiveness of DAAs varies between racial and ethnic groups.”
“Our results demonstrate that DAA-based regimens are highly effective for treatment of chronic HCV among all race and ethnicity groups in real-world practice,” the researchers concluded. “Although black race and Hispanic ethnicity are still associated with lower likelihood of SVR in multivariate analysis, DAAs hold promise in closing the SVR gap between different race/ethnicity groups,” and future studies should include racial and ethnic minorities to ensure detection of clinical differences, they added. – by Adam Leitenberger