Clinical efficacy of direct-acting antiviral therapy for recurrent hepatitis C virus infection after liver transplantation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Characteristics of the study population according to pre-transplantation hepatocellular carcinoma status

	Number (%)
Characteristic	Non-HCC (n = 38)	HCC (n = 68)	P value
Demographics
mean (± SD) age at treatment initiation, years	58.2 ± 11.1	62.2 ± 5.9	0.01
Median age at treatment initiation, yr (range)	62 (28-74)	62.5 (47.0-78.0)	0.2
Male	25 (66)	50 (74)	0.5
Female	13 (34)	18 (26)
White	19 (50)	37 (54)	0.4
Black	11 (29)	11 (16)
Hispanic	6 (16)	17 (25)
Asian	2 (5)	3 (4)
Epidemiologic characteristics
mean (± SD) baseline BMI	27.9 ± 5.5	28.5 ± 4.5	0.6
Median baseline BMI, (range)	27.0 (21.0-48.5)	28.5 (17.0-46.0)	0.3
Alcohol drinking	11 (29)	32 (47)	0.08
Cigarette smoking	18 (47)	51 (75)	0.01
Baseline co-morbidities
Diabetes Mellitus	20 (53)	53 (78)	0.01
CKD	20 (53)	23 (34)	0.06
eGFR < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2	7 (18)	2 (3)	0.01
Cirrhosis	5 (15)	4 (8)	0.5
HCV-positive allograft	0	4 (6)	0.3
Anti-HBc-positive allograft	1 (3)	10 (15)	0.09
Pre-transplant relapse to antiviral treatment	6 (16)	23 (34)	0.06
mean (± SD) time from LT to DAA initiation, mo	99.3 ± 79.7	39.4 ± 40.5	0.0001
Median time from LT to DAA initiation, months (range)	91.5 (2.0-331.0)	28 (1-171)	0.0001
Baseline laboratory values
mean (± SD) creatinine level, mg/dL	1.9 ± 1.9	1.2 ± 0.8	0.08
Median creatinine level, mg/dL (range)	1.2 (0.7-8.7)	1.0 (0.7-7.0)	0.01
mean (± SD) AFP level, ng/mL	10.2 ± 30.5	6.8 ± 12.8	0.5
Median AFP level, ng/mL (range)	3.2 (2.0-149.0)	3.1 (1.3-88.0)	0.5
mean (± SD) MELD-Na score	13 ± 5	10 ± 4	0.01
Median MELD-Na score (range)	13 (6-24)	9 (6-24)	0.01
Clinical outcomes
Relapse at follow-up week 12	1 (3)	5 (7)	0.4
SVR12	37 (97)	63 (93)	0.4
HCC recurrence after DAA treatment	0	6 (9)	0.08

HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; SD: Standard deviation; BMI: Body mass index; CKD: Chronic kidney disease; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; HBc: Hepatitis B core; LT: Liver transplant; DAA: Direct-acting antiviral; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; SVR: Sustained virologic response.