Definition of Antiretroviral Treatment Failure

Background:

Antiretroviral treatment failure is a complex issue. It has been described in terms of virologic failure, extent of immunodeficiency, clinical progression and drug toxicity associated morbidity and mortality, with most analytic approaches having been exclusive rather than inclusive of these four areas. A clearer, comprehensive understanding of treatment failure taking into account each of these outcome areas is required for the optimization of treatment strategies, new drug development research and rational approaches to treatment policies. This is relevant to individual patient management, public health issues and drug development.

Objectives:

The Forum has convened a working group composed of international experts in the field of antiretroviral therapy, drug resistance, health resource policy and utilization, drug toxicity, cohort studies databases, clinical trials group databases and analytic approaches from academia, government agencies, pharmaceutical industry, treatment community and patient community. This group is meeting on an ongoing basis with the goal to:

Discuss and publish a comprehensive state-of-the-art view of treatment failure;
Make recommendations for new approaches to data collection that will facilitate more comprehensive analyses of treatment failure and to distinguish amongst the various forms of treatment failure;
Make recommendations for new analytic approaches to assess treatment failure in a comprehensive manner; and
Recommend specific analyses to assess the scope of treatment failure as needed for individual patients management, public health issues and drug development.

Status:

The working group met in December of 2001 and will continue to convene on an ongoing basis.

Scientific chairs:
Dr. Jens Lundgren (Denmark)
Dr. Roy Gulick (USA)
Dr. Veronica Miller (USA)

Project specific sponsors:
Office of AIDS Research, National Institutes of Health

Forum for Collaborative HIV Research
Department of Prevention and Community Health
School of Public Health and Health Services

2175 K St NW Ste 700
Washington, DC 20037
Phone: 202 530-2370
Fax: 202 530-3923
info@hivforum.org