Staccato Trial Supports CD4-Guided Treatment Interruption

CD4-guided interruption of potent combination antiretroviral therapy was the focus of several trials presented at the 2006 Retrovirus Conference (ACC Mar 15 2006). Now, published findings are available from the two completed arms of the Staccato trial. The other arm, testing week-on/week-off therapy, was stopped because of unacceptably high rates of virologic failure (ACC Dec 1 2003).

The current report focuses on 430 patients with on-treatment CD4 counts >350 cells/mm³ and viral loads <50 copies/mL who were randomized to continuous therapy (146 patients) or treatment interruption (TI; 284 patients). TI involved stopping therapy at enrollment until a patient’s CD4 count fell below 350 cells/mm³ and then restarting it for at least 12 weeks, w…