HCV-TARGET: Hepatitis C Therapeutic Registry and Research Network - A Longitudinal, Observational Study.

HCV-TARGET is a longitudinal, observational study that will create a carefully maintained research registry of HCV patients treated with antiviral therapies designed to rapidly inform strategies for better management of populations underrepresented in clinical trials, identify and remediate educational gaps relative to treatment guidelines and adverse event management in order to optimize rates of sustained virological response (SVR), and serve as the core resource for important collaborative translational studies utilizing biospecimens and clinical data from diverse patient populations.

HCV-TARGET is a cooperative academic consortium of principal investigators from Clinical and Translational Award (CTSA)-funded academic institutions and community-based sites affiliated with the academic sites in geographic proximity. The Clinical Coordinating Center (CCC) resides at the University of Florida and the Data Coordinating Center (DCC) resides at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The HCV-TARGET registry will characterize the population of chronic hepatitis C (HCV) patients who are being treated with antiviral therapies at academic and community sites. Patient characteristics such as age, race, ethnicity, comorbidity, and disease and treatment status will be examined.

HCV-TARGET will also:

1. Provide baseline and treatment response data that will be used to pre-identify candidates for enrollment in future clinical trials. HCV-TARGET will also develop a well-characterized cohort of protease inhibitor treatment failures to be considered for future trials.
2. Establish and maintain data, a specimen bank and other resources for ancillary studies of the pathogenesis, diagnosis, natural history and treatment of HCV infection.