Have hematopoietic growth factors made an impact on the management of liver disease?
It is clear that the major indication for the use of hematopoietic growth factors in hepatology is to counteract the adverse effects of interferons (neutropenia and thrombocytopenia) and ribavirin (hemolytic anaemia) during the treatment of hepatitis C infection. This is important because the probability of SVR depends on proper adherence to therapy (at least 80% of the requisite dose maintained for at least 80% of the requisite duration) and proper adherence can only be achieved if the side effects are reduced to a minimum. Even though the studies have demonstrated beyond doubt that the use of hematopoietic growth factors does indeed reduce the incidence and severity of these adverse effects and helps the patients to complete the course of therapy, the data on improvement of SVR is still limited. There is only one study of darbepoetin and filgrastim showing the beneficial effect on SVR. Even among the hematological side effects, possibly the only significant effect which limits the use of optimal HCV therapy is the hemolytic anaemia induced by ribavirin. The other two main side effects, i.e. neutropenia and thrombocytopenia are not clinically problematic. The use of such growth factors would be particularly effective if patients who have advanced liver disease or cirrhosis are able to receive adequate anti-viral therapy as has been demonstrated in the study of eltrombopag among HCV cirrhotics. Apart from this, other indications of G-CSF or GM-CSF use are still in the experimental stage. So, as of now, apart from erythropoietic factors, the role played by other hematopoietic growth factors in hepatology is limited. But future research, especially in the areas of immunotherapy of liver cancers and stem cell therapy for endstage liver disease, is surely going to give these factors their due place in hepatology.
Tyagi
Pankaj
P
Department of Gastroenterology, GB Pant Hospital, New Delhi.
Madan
Kaushal
K