Published On: 4/4/2022

Target RWE Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) Encore Data Presented at APASL 2022

Target RWE participated and virtually shared two TARGET-PBC encore abstract posters at this year’s 31st annual Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) conference event, March 30-April 3, 2022. Originally presented at the virtual American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Liver Meeting in November 2020, the Target RWE encore posters highlighted new real-world data regarding the impact of pruritus on the quality of life and management of patients diagnosed with PBC.

“We are excited to continue to share our real-world data findings from TARGET-PBC to further help identify the significant impact that PBC has on patients, particularly related to aspects of their quality of life such as fatigue, social, emotional, and cognitive symptoms,” said Andrea Mospan, PhD, RAC, Vice President, Scientific & Medical Affairs, Real World Evidence at Target RWE.

The first TARGET-PBC poster, The pervasive impact of pruritus on quality of life (QOL) in patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC): Real world experience in TARGET-PBC, assessed more than 600 patients with PBC in the U.S. and included participants who completed one or more surveys for this study. Using the Kruskal-Wallis test and median PBC-40 domain score, participants were grouped into the following categories: clinically significant itch (CS-itch; ≥7 on PBC-40 itch domain), mild itch, or no itch. Results included: 

• Presence and intensity of itch significantly impacts QOL
• CS-itch patients were far worse than those with mild or no-itch when considering fatigue, social, emotional, cognitive, and other symptoms
• Future interventions targeting pruritus may improve QOL

The second Target RWE poster, Pruritus in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is under-treated in clinical practice: Results from TARGET-PBC, aimed to characterize the pruritus population and to describe disease management in the TARGET-PBC longitudinal study. The study included participants who completed one or more surveys and utilized the same itch groups as the first poster listed above: clinically significant itch (CS-itch; ≥7 on PBC-40 itch domain), mild itch, or no itch. Overall, the analysis found that pruritus is under-treated in the TARGET-PBC cohort and many patients with CS-itch never receive treatment.

TARGET-PBC is an active 5-year longitudinal, observational study of more than 700 patients with PBC receiving usual care from 37 academic and community centers in the U.S. to date. Target RWE partners can query the TARGET-PBC database, comprised of up to 8 years of longitudinal patient journeys, and access biospecimen samples linked to validated clinical data to conduct further research and genomics analysis.

Learn more about Target RWE’s publications here.