Patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) saw clinically meaningful improvements in extrapolated long-term, event-free and overall survival when dapagliflozin was added to standard therapy, according to new research published in JAMA Cardiology.
The primary goal of the study was to evaluate the projected long-term treatment impact of dapagliflozin in patients with HFrEF over the patient’s lifetime.
The DAPA-HF phase 3 clinical trial included more than 4,700 patients with a mean patient age of 66.3 years old. More than 76% of patients were men. All patients presented with a an ejection fraction of less than or equal to 40% from February 2017 to August 2018.
In addition to standard therapy, all participants were randomly assigned to receive either dapagliflozin or a placebo once a day.
According to the authors, event-free survival for the primary outcome in patients aged 65 years old was 6.2 years for the placebo and 8.3 years for those who received dapagliflozin. When taking into consideration death from all causes, the mean extrapolated life expectancy for patients aged 65 years old was 9.1 years for placebo vs. 10.8 years for dapagliflozin.
Overall, the group found, dapagliflozin appeared to reduce the risk of all-cause mortality by an estimated 17%.
"The findings of this trial suggest that, when the results of DAPA-HF are extrapolated over a patient’s lifetime, dapagliflozin is estimated to provide clinically meaningful gains in event-free and overall survival," wrote lead author Kieran F. Docherty, MBChB, with the British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Research Centre, University of Glasgow, and colleagues. "These results may be helpful in communicating the benefits of this treatment to patients with HFrEF."
Read the full study here.