How new hepatitis C drugs could tackle liver cancer, too

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How to cut rates of liver cancer? Reducing hepatitis C rates would be a good start.

Wider availability of newer hepatitis C drugs may not only lead to fewer cases of this blood-borne disease, but may also slow the rise in related liver cancer.

But these so-called direct acting antiviral drugs have not been widely available in Australia or overseas for long enough for us to confirm this long-term trend.

So, we need to see if their increased use is linked with a downturn in new cases of liver cancer, the focus of our research.

Although direct-acting antivirals have been available since 2014, they have been listed in Australia on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme since March 2016 for any adult with hepatitis C. General practitioners as well as specialists can prescribe the drugs, with no cap on numbers of people treated a year, no restrictions based on the stage of liver disease, or ongoing drug and alcohol use.