AIMS: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of TVR-based triple therapy in older patients, specifically aged 66 years and over. METHODS: This prospective study enrolled 105 genotype 1b Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C who received 12 weeks of triple therapy followed by a 12-week

dual therapy that included PegIFNβ2b and RBV. The patients were categorized according to age: selleck kinase inhibitor an older group – 34 patients aged >65 and a younger group – 71 patients aged ≤65. The median ages were 69 years (66-81) in the older group and 56 years (26-65) in the younger group. The demographic, clinical, biochemical and virological data were collected at baseline and during therapy. RESULTS:The rates of undetectable HCV RNA at week 4 were 58.8% and 64.8% in the older and younger groups, respectively. Although the cumulative exposure to RBV for the whole 24-week treatment period (as a percentage of the target dosage) was significantly lower (66.7%) in the older group than in the younger group (91.7%), the cumulative exposure to TVR was not significantly different between the older (81.9%) and younger (91.6%) groups. No significant differences in the SVR were found between the older (88.2%) and younger (83.9%) groups. The SVR rates for patients with the interleu-kin 28B (IL28B) (rs8099917) TT allele (96.2% and 95.5% for the older and younger groups) were significantly higher

than for patients IWR1 with the IL28B TG/GG allele (66.7% and 72.7%, respectively). Pretreatment serum CXCL10 (IP-10) levels were not significantly different between the older (534pg/ml, 95-1794) and younger (502pg/ml, 95-1327) groups. A mul-tivariate analysis identified the IL28B TT allele as an independent factor associated with the SVR. Adverse effects resulted in treatment discontinuation by 14.7% and 11.3% in the older and younger groups, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: TVR-based triple therapy can be successfully used to treat patients aged 66 years and over with genotype 1b chronic hepatitis C. IL28B genotyping indicates the potential to achieve an SVR in these difficult-to-treat older patients. Disclosures: The following people have nothing to disclose: Satoshi Yamagiwa,

Toru Ishi-kawa, Shunsuke Ketotifen Tsubata, Nobuo Waguri, Soichi Sugitani, Hiroto Wakabayashi, Masaaki Takamura, Masato Igarashi, Minoru Nomoto Background and aims: HCV infected Liver Transplant (LT) recipients are often treated with suboptimal interferon (IFN) doses due to either low platelet count (PC) or low white blood cell count (WBC). Our aim was to investigate if low blood cell counts during HCV treatment are predictive of bleeding and infection in LT recipients. Methods: N=135 LT recipients with chronic HCV received IFN-based treatment. Bleeding and infections were correlated with respectively lowest PC and lowest WBC during 4-weekly intervals. Results: A total of 178 treatments in 135 LT recipients (mean age 54 years (SD +/−8.