Author information

¹Transplantation and Liver Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: Fredrik.Aberg@helsinki.fi.

²Transplantation and Liver Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Finland.

³Medaffcon Oy, Espoo.

Abstract

The optimal calcineurin inhibitor after liver transplantation (LT) for primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) remains debated. We compared tacrolimus with cyclosporine in a propensity score-matched intention-to-treat analysis from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. We included adults with PBC who underwent primary LT 1995-2022. Patients with initial cyclosporine treatment were 1:3 matched with those with initial tacrolimus treatment, ensuring exact calendar-period match. Primary outcomes were patient and graft survival. After matching, 579 patients with PBC and initial cyclosporine and 1348 with tacrolimus were well balanced for baseline characteristics. During a median follow-up of 11.1 years, 1044 (54%) deaths and 124 (6%) re-LTs occurred. In the overall matched sample, no significant survival difference emerged between cyclosporine and tacrolimus. However, tacrolimus conferred a survival advantage in some secondary analysis such as LT after year 2000, women, and in a 6-month landmark analysis excluding early post-operative events and calcineurin-inhibitor switches. Cyclosporine did not reduce graft loss from PBC recurrence or affect laboratory markers of recurrence. In conclusion, we found no benefit of starting immunosuppression with cyclosporine after LT for PBC.