Improved Long-Term Survival with Tafamidis Treatment in Patients with Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy and Severe Heart Failure Symptoms

AIM: The value of disease-modifying therapies (such as tafamidis) in patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) and severe heart failure symptoms has been debated. This study assessed long-term all-cause survival in patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III symptoms in the Tafamidis in Transthyretin Cardiomyopathy Clinical Trial (ATTR-ACT) long-term extension (LTE) study. METHODS AND RESULTS: At the baseline of ATTR-ACT, 55/176 (31.3%) patients receiving tafamidis 80 mg and 63/177 (35.6%) receiving placebo had NYHA class III symptoms. After 30 months of treatment, patients could join an ongoing LTE study to receive open-label tafamidis. In an interim analysis of the LTE study (August 2021), all-cause mortality was lower among patients with NYHA class III symptoms who received continuous tafamidis in ATTR-ACT and the LTE study (hazard ratio 0.64; 95% confidence interval 0.41-0.99; median follow-up: 60 months), as compared with those who received placebo in ATTR-ACT and tafamidis in the LTE study (median follow-up: 56 months). Similar findings were observed in patients with NYHA class I/II symptoms at baseline (0.50; 0.35-0.73; tafamidis 80 mg n = 121; placebo n = 114; median follow-up of 61 and 60 months, respectively). CONCLUSION: We observed reduced all-cause mortality with continuous tafamidis treatment compared with delayed tafamidis treatment (placebo then tafamidis) in patients with NYHA class III symptoms at baseline over a median follow-up of ∼5 years. These findings demonstrate the value of tafamidis treatment in patients with ATTR-CM and severe heart failure symptoms, and emphasize the importance of early treatment. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATIONS: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01994889 and NCT02791230.