On 2016 Mar 14, NephJC - Nephrology Journal Club commented:

This study about the longer term follow-up of the original BENEFIT trial was discussed on February 23rd and 24th 2016 in the open online nephrology journal club, #NephJC, on twitter. Introductory comments written by Nikhil Shah are available at the NephJC website. The discussion was quite detailed, with over 50 participants, including general, transplant and pediatric nephrologists, fellows, residents and patients. The transcripts of the tweetchat are available from the NephJC website.<br> The highlights of the tweetchat were:

• The authors, the trial participants and the sponsor (Bristol-Myers Squibb, the makers of belatacept) should be commended for conducting the trial, and pursuing the long term follow up for 7 years.

• There was considerable enthusiasm for having an effective alternative to calcineurin inhibitors, and the difference in GFR observed was very encouraging.

• Several issues made the group cautious and skeptical with respect to the finding of the benefit of belatacept in graft and patient survival: the differential loss to follow up and the small absolute difference in number of events which drove the significance; the lack of improvement in survival seen in the 7 year follow up BENEFIT-EXT study; the use of cyclosporine as the comparator rather than tacrolimus; the cost of the drug and lastly, the fact that the data was analyzed by the sponsor, and the manuscript was written by a medical writer paid by the sponsor.

Interested individuals can track and join in the conversation by following @NephJC, #NephJC, signing up for the mailing list, or visit the webpage at NephJC.com

On 2016 Mar 14, NephJC - Nephrology Journal Club commented:

This study about the longer term follow-up of the original BENEFIT trial was discussed on February 23rd and 24th 2016 in the open online nephrology journal club, #NephJC, on twitter. Introductory comments written by Nikhil Shah are available at the NephJC website. The discussion was quite detailed, with over 50 participants, including general, transplant and pediatric nephrologists, fellows, residents and patients. The transcripts of the tweetchat are available from the NephJC website.<br> The highlights of the tweetchat were:

• The authors, the trial participants and the sponsor (Bristol-Myers Squibb, the makers of belatacept) should be commended for conducting the trial, and pursuing the long term follow up for 7 years.

• There was considerable enthusiasm for having an effective alternative to calcineurin inhibitors, and the difference in GFR observed was very encouraging.

• Several issues made the group cautious and skeptical with respect to the finding of the benefit of belatacept in graft and patient survival: the differential loss to follow up and the small absolute difference in number of events which drove the significance; the lack of improvement in survival seen in the 7 year follow up BENEFIT-EXT study; the use of cyclosporine as the comparator rather than tacrolimus; the cost of the drug and lastly, the fact that the data was analyzed by the sponsor, and the manuscript was written by a medical writer paid by the sponsor.

Interested individuals can track and join in the conversation by following @NephJC, #NephJC, signing up for the mailing list, or visit the webpage at NephJC.com