Ongoing Effects of Hepatitis C Virus in St. Jude Cancer Alumni under Study

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (ALSAC)
Friday, 9 March 2001

(March 9, 2001, Memphis, Tennessee) The long-term effects of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in former childhood cancer patients are the focus of current studies at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

As they screen former St. Jude patients for the virus, physicians from St. Jude and the University of Tennessee Hepatology Service are learning more about HCV and its long-term effects. These patients may have contracted the virus from blood transfusions during cancer treatment. Blood banks have screened for HCV since 1990. St. Jude physicians recommend that all cancer survivors who received transfusions prior to 1990 seek HCV screening. Effective treatment is available.

So far, most in the study are deemed clinically well. Some former patients show no current signs of the virus in their bodies.

"The virus lies dormant within the majority of our patient group," said Dr. Melissa Hudson, director of the After Completion of the Therapy Clinic in Department of Hematology-Oncology. "These infected patients have no related problems. So far, only a few have developed end-stage liver disease or cancer. However, our study group is not complete."

About 15 percent who have cleared their bodies of the infection hold special interest.

"We need to realize how their immune response differs from those patients whose systems remain chronically infected," Hudson said. "This is a new area of research."

"Both physicians caring for chronically infected HCV patients and physicians participating in antiviral therapy research can benefit from this study," Hudson said. Of the ongoing protocol, she noted, "What we learn may change each decade as our group ages. Cancer patients infected during childhood are at risk for clinically significant liver problems as they age. They should be screened and monitored."

HCV studies from other institutions indicate liver scarring (cirrhosis) develops in over 20 percent of monitored patients on average 20 years from infection; of these, 1 to 5 percent develops liver cancer within a decade of cirrhosis' onset. St. Jude researchers are comparing these results to their group while including related variables.

The hospital's contact with nearly all alumni is essential to the study.

"St. Jude's After Completion of Therapy Clinic and Tumor Registry is in contact with over 90 percent of our former patients," Hudson said.

St. Jude opened the protocol in 1995. In 1999, the National Institutes of Health provided $1.2 million to assemble the hospital's survivors, plus screen patients transfused prior to HCV blood donor screening. Researchers are screening blood bank specimens of discharged patients who qualify for the study. Active patients are screened during follow-up hospital visits.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas. The hospital is an internationally recognized biomedical research center dedicated to finding cures for catastrophic diseases of childhood. The hospital's work is supported by the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities® (ALSAC®). All St. Jude patients are treated regardless of their families' ability to pay. ALSAC covers all costs of treatment beyond those covered by third-party insurers and total costs for families who have no insurance.

For more information, or to contact St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (ALSAC), see their website at: www.stjude.org