2019•TransplantationOpen access
Improved Survival in Liver Transplant Patients Receiving Prolonged-release Tacrolimus-based Immunosuppression in the European Liver Transplant Registry (ELTR): An Extension Study
René Adam, Vincent Karam, Valérie Cailliez, Pavel Trunečka, Didier Samuel, Giuseppe Tisone, Petr Němec, Olivier Soubrane, Stefan Schneeberger, Bruno Gridelli, Wolf O. Bechstein, Andrea Risaliti, Pål‐Dag Line, Marco Vivarelli, Massimo Rossi, Jacques Pirenne, Jürgen Klempnauer, Aleh Rummo, Fabrizio Di Benedetto, Krzysztof Zieniewicz, Roberto Troisi, Andreas Paul, Toomas Väli, Otto Kollmar, Karim Boudjéma, Emir Hoti, M. Colledan, J. Pratschke, Hauke Lang, Irinel Popescu, Bo‐Göran Ericzon, Kęstutis Strupas, Paolo De Simone, E. Kochs, Bruno Heyd, Jean Gugenheim, Antonio Daniele Pinna, William Bennet, Mirjalal Kazimi, Philippe Bachellier, Stephen J. Wigmore, Allan Rasmussen, Pierre‐Alain Clavien, Ernest Hidalgo, John G. O’Grady, Frausto Zamboni, Murat Kılıç, Christophe Duvoux
Abstract
BACKGROUND: We compared, through the European Liver Transplant Registry, long-term liver transplantation outcomes with prolonged-release tacrolimus (PR-T) versus immediate-release tacrolimus (IR-T)-based immunosuppression. This retrospective analysis comprises up to 8-year data collected between 2008 and 2016, in an extension of our previously published study. METHODS: Patients with <1 month follow-up were excluded; patients were propensity score matched for baseline characteristics. Efficacy measures included: univariate/multivariate analyses of risk factors influencing graft/patient survival up to 8 years posttransplantation, and graft/patient survival up to 4 years with PR-T versus IR-T. Overall, 13 088 patients were included from 44 European centers; propensity score-matched analyses comprised 3006 patients (PR-T: n = 1002; IR-T: n = 2004). RESULTS: In multivariate analyses, IR-T-based immunosuppression was associated with reduced graft survival (risk ratio, 1.49; P = 0.0038) and patient survival (risk ratio, 1.40; P = 0.0215). There was improvement with PR-T versus IR-T in graft survival (83% versus 77% at 4 y, respectively; P = 0.005) and patient survival (85% versus 80%; P = 0.017). Patients converted from IR-T to PR-T after 1 month had a higher graft survival rate than patients receiving IR-T at last follow-up (P < 0.001), or started and maintained on PR-T (P = 0.019). One graft loss in 4 years was avoided for every 14.3 patients treated with PR-T versus IR-T. CONCLUSIONS: PR-T-based immunosuppression might improve long-term outcomes in liver transplant recipients than IR-T-based immunosuppression.