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No Gender Differences Seen With Atazanavir Treatment for HIV Infection: Presented at IDSA
By Ed Susman
PHILADELPHIA -- November 1, 2009 -- There are no gender differences in treatment outcomes for HIV infection when patients are treated with the protease inhibitor atazanavir as monotherapy, researchers stated here at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).
"The proportion of women in the United States' HIV-infected population has risen steadily in recent years," noted Kathleen Squires, MD, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, speaking at a presentation here on October 30. "In 2007, an estimated 104,560 women were living with AIDS in the United States. This has prompted greater awareness of the need to evaluate potential gender differences in response to antiretroviral treatments."
Dr. Squires explained that there have been reports that women on antiretroviral therapy may be more susceptible to treatment-related adverse events. She and her team pooled data from 4 studies of unboosted atazanavir, and identified 286 women among the 787 subjects in the atazanavir-containing arms.
Approximately 80% of the women on atazanavir were able to achieve viral suppression to undetectable levels using the less-than-400 copies/mL assay, compared with 85% of the men.
Lipidology results were also fairly similar between men and women. Total cholesterol increased by 8 mg/dL in men compared with a 4 mg/dL increase in women, while low-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased by 14 mg/dL among men compared with a mean increase of 10 mg/dL in women. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased by 6 mg/dL among both men and women. Triglyceride levels dropped by 6 mg/dL among men and by 12 mg/dL among women.
CD4-positive cell counts were also similar for men and women in each of the 4 studies.
"Overall, the pooled analysis showed similar safety and tolerability results with unboosted atazanavir in both male and female subjects," Dr. Squires concluded.
Funding for these studies was sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
[Presentation title: Safety and Efficacy of Unboosted Atazanavir (ATV)-Based Regimens in Treatment-Naïve Patients by Gender. Abstract 275]
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