Antwi SO, et al. - In this retrospective study, researchers used longitudinal data from the hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients of different backgrounds (various ages, ethnicities, and geographic regions) across the US, to examine the link between the use of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) and subsequent development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). They used medical and pharmacy claims from OptumLabs. They classified HCV treatment exposure as DAA-only, DAA+interferon(IFN), any-DAA, or IFN-only. HCC risk was not significantly increased in correlation to the use of DAA-only, DAA+IFN, or any-DAA, compared with IFN-only regimen. On stratification by sustained virological response (SVR), the use of DAA-only was associated with a higher HCC risk among patients who achieved SVR after treatment, but the confidence intervals were wide possible because of the small sample size of the subgroups. They found no link for use of DAA-only among patients who did not achieve SVR. Overall, no compelling evidence was generated to show an increased risk of HCC development in correlation with use of DAAs for HCV.