News Release

Treating HIV earlier to decrease the risk of death

A new North American study shows that starting antiretroviral treatment earlier could reduce the risk of death by up to 94 percent

Peer-Reviewed Publication

McGill University Health Centre

This release is available in French.

Montreal, April 14 2009 – Begin treatment as early as possible: this general common sense rule seems to apply to most diseases except HIV-AIDS, which is only treated once a certain number of immune cells called "CD4+" cells have disappeared. The results of a North American study, which involved the team of Dr. Marina Klein of the Research Institute of the MUHC, run contrary to this consensus. The findings show that the risk of death in seropositive patients decreases by 69% to 94% if they start treatment earlier than officially recommended.

This study, which was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, could have considerable influence on medical practice.

Early treatment decreases the risk of death…

In more precise terms, the risk of death decreases by 94% for patients who begin anti-HIV treatment when their CD4+ cell counts are above 500 cells per millilitre compared with those who start with a count below 500. Patients who begin treatment with a CD4+ cell count between 350 and 500 cells per millilitre see their risk of death reduced by 69% compared with those who begin at a lower count of 350.

"The official guidelines recommend starting anti-HIV treatment when the patient's CD4+ cell count is less than 350 cells per millilitre. This recommendation was formulated from data based on older medications that produced more side effects than current treatments," explained Dr. Klein. "Current therapies cause fewer side effects, are better tolerated and more effective so we can safely start treating patients earlier."

This study is the first of its scope to measure the risk of death based on the progress of infection at the start of treatment. The information was drawn from a number of databases in North America, including one managed by Dr. Klein at the Montreal Chest Institute,. In total, the researchers analyzed data from 17517 patients between 1996 and 2005.

… and disease in general

"We have noticed that HIV treatments may decrease the impact of non-AIDS-related diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, liver disease, or cancer. This may be a reason why early treatment can decrease the risk of death overall," Dr. Klein continued. "We do not know the precise mechanisms behind this observation, but there are two plausible hypotheses. First, the medications seem to be more effective at supporting the immune system by acting earlier; second, they appear to prevent the HIV virus from replicating, which reduces inflammation."

Despite current treatment guidelines, there has been a growing trend to treat patients earlier and earlier once the virus is detected. This study could therefore reinforce this trend and possibly bring about an official change in the guidelines.

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Dr. Marina Klein

Dr. Marina Klein is a researcher in the Infection and Immunity Axis at the Research Institute of the MUHC and a physician specializing in infectious diseases, HIV and clinical epidemiology at the Montreal Chest Institute of the MUHC. She is also an Associate Professor in Medicine at McGill University.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Partenaires

This study was done in collaboration with teams from: University of Washington, Seattle (Dr Mari M. Kitahata, Dr Ann C. Collier, Steven E. Van Rompaey, Dr Heidi M. Crane), John Hopkins University, Baltimore (Stephen J. Gange, Alison G. Abraham, Barry Merriman, Lisa P. Jacobson, Dr Gregory D. Kirk, Dr Kelly A. Gebo, Bryan Lau, Dr Aimee M. Freeman, Dr Richard D. Moore), University of Alabama-Birmingham, Birmingham (Dr Michael S. Saag), Yale University and the Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, New Haven (Dr Amy C. Justice), the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Simon Fraser University, Vancouver (Robert S. Hogg), University of California – San Francisco, San Francisco (Dr Steven G. Deeks, Dr Jeffrey N. Martin), University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill (Dr Joseph J. Eron, Sonia Napravnik), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta (Dr John T. Brooks), University of Toronto , Toronto (Sean B. Rourke, Dr Anita R. Rachlis, Liviana M. Calzavara), University of Calgary, Calgary (M. John Gill), Harvard Medical School, Boston (Ronald J. Bosch), the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland (Dr Benigno Rodriguez), Vanderbilt University, Nashville (Dr Timothy R. Sterling), the Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland (Dr Michael a. Horberg, Michael J. Silverberg), the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda (Dr James J. Goedert, Rosemary G. McKaig), the University of California-San Diego, San Diego (Dr Constance A. Benson).

Find this press release, with the original article and a short audio document by following this link : http://www.muhc.ca/media/news/

The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) is a world-renowned biomedical and health-care hospital research centre. Located in Montreal, Quebec, the institute is the research arm of the MUHC, the university health center affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. The institute supports over 600 researchers, nearly 1200 graduate and post-doctoral students and operates more than 300 laboratories devoted to a broad spectrum of fundamental and clinical research. The Research Institute operates at the forefront of knowledge, innovation and technology and is inextricably linked to the clinical programs of the MUHC, ensuring that patients benefit directly from the latest research-based knowledge.

The Research Institute of the MUHC is supported in part by the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec.

For further details visit: www.muhc.ca/research.


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