Safety and Effectiveness Using Pegasys and Copegus in Recipients of Liver Transplantation With Hepatitis C

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2009-04-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

The study is being done to study the impact of prophylactic administration of antiviral therapy as compared to initiation of antiviral therapy at the time of clinical recurrence of hepatitis C infection in liver transplant recipients.

• Phase: Phase 4
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Mayo Clinic
• Collaborator: Roche Pharma AG
• Treatments: Peginterferon alfa-2a; Ribavirin

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

Positive HCV RNA by PCR at pretransplantation. No biochemical inclusion criteria Male or female patient (>18 yrs) who has undergone liver transplantation because of liver cirrhosis attributed to HCV infection. Patient is a primary, single organ recipient (cadaveric donor). Normal thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) Negative urine or blood pregnancy test (for women of childbearing potential) documented within the 24-hour period prior to the first dose of study drug. Documentation that female patients of childbearing potential and all male patients are practicing two methods of contraception. For male participants, the following methods are acceptable: 1) vasectomy ANDcondoms with spermicide or 2) vasectomy or condoms with spermicide AND a monogamous relationship with a woman using a single method of contraception. Liver transplant >10 weeks and <26 weeks (6 months) before treatment initiation Patients with a pre-OLT diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may be enrolled provided there is no evidence of extrahepatic spread or vascular invasion, and the tumor is solitary and <5 cm or there are up to three tumors <3 cm.

Exclusion Criteria:

Multi-organ or retransplant recipient Patients with HCC who do not meet inclusion criteria or require systemic chemotherapy Recipient of ABO incompatible organ Donor cold ischemia time >20 hrs Anti-HBc positive donor Histological evidence of unresolved rejection Episode of steroid resistant rejection / use of OKT3 Evidence of current Hepatitis B (sAg, cAb, IgM) Seropositivity for HIV infection Serum creatinine >2x upper limit of normal WBC >20,000 x 109/L or ANC <1,500 cells/mm3 Hgb <10g/dL and/or platelets <50,000/mm3 History of autoimmune disease (SLE, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis etc.) Uncontrolled seizure disorder Uncontrolled depression or history of suicide attempts/ideation History or evidence of retinopathy Unable or unwilling to give informed consent