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 In a trial involving more than 1,000 patients, the generic medicines
-- prednisolone and pentoxifylline -- were found to make no
significant reduction in death rates over 28 days, over 90 days, or
even over a year.
Publishing their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine,
scientists from Imperial College London said they highlighted an
urgent need for more research into how to prevent and treat
alcohol-related liver disease.
Drinking too much alcohol initially causes fat to build up in the
liver - a potentially reversible condition. But alcoholic hepatitis
-- caused by inflammation of the liver due to severe,
alcohol-related liver disease -- is linked to liver failure and in
up to 30 percent of cases it kills patients within a month.
In 2012 in England and Wales alone, alcoholic liver disease killed
4,425 people.
Mark Thursz, a professor in Imperial's department of medicine, said
that while the drugs are widely used, but "the evidence supporting
them comes from a few relatively small trials".
This latest study -- involving 1,053 patients being treated at 65
hospitals across Britain -- was four times larger than any previous
trial in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis, so gives a
clearer picture of how effective the drugs are, he said.
In the study, the 1,053 were split into four groups, each receiving
two treatments: prednisolone and pentoxifylline, prednisolone and
placebo (or dummy pill), pentoxifylline and placebo, or two
placebos.
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Overall, 16 percent of patients died within 28 days of starting
treatment. At 90 days, 29 percent of patients had died, and after a
year, 56 percent had either died or had a liver transplant. There
were no statistically significant differences in death rates between
the groups.
"We were surprised to find neither treatment had a significant
effect on survival after the first month, and the mortality rate
after one year is alarmingly high," Thursz said.
He said one reason why the drugs might not improve survival rates
was that they increase the risk of infection. Another is that many
patients return to drinking, he said, leading to further hepatitis
attacks or liver cirrhosis.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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