Cure of Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Dear Colleagues,

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)—the second leading, and rising, death due to cancer world-wide. Following the discovery of virus, almost three decades ago, the field has succeeded in developing methods that have changed the safety of blood products, understand molecular virology, epidemiology and clinical disease of HCV, and unraveled targets for antiviral therapies (Baumert et al. J. Hepatol. 2016). Most importantly, these discoveries have resulted in the development of safe and highly-efficient direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for an HCV cure. Nevertheless, major clinical and scientific challenges remain: Therapy is still only available to a fraction of infected patients worldwide and many patients remain undiagnosed and/or live in countries where therapy is unattainable. An urgently-needed HCV vaccine to eradicate infection is not available. Moreover, despite efficient viral cure, the risk of developing HCC remains elevated, although substantially reduced, in particular in patients with advanced fibrosis. Clinically-observed effects on HCC incidence is likely comparable between DAAs and the former interferon-based regimens. However, mechanistic studies have suggested that their molecular consequence may be different with regard to modulation of host immunity and oncogenic pathways. In this Special Issue we aim to provide an overview on the next challenges in HCV infection in the era of DAAs with a special focus on viral eradication and HCC prevention.

Prof. Thomas F. Baumert
Dr. Yujin Hoshida
Guest Editors

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