Structured treatment interruptions--new findings.

A number of recent studies have examined structured treatment interruption (STI) of antiretroviral therapy using CD4+ cell count-guided or time-based strategies in patients with chronic HIV infection and stable suppression of HIV RNA. On balance, data from these studies indicate that STI is associated with worse immunologic, virologic, and clinical outcomes than continuous antiretroviral therapy. However, the potential may still exist for use of short-term STI to manage drug toxicities in patients in this setting or to assess immunologic and virologic outcomes of novel interventions in carefully controlled clinical trials. This article summarizes a presentation on STI made by Constance A. Benson, MD, at the International AIDS Society-USA course in San Francisco in April 2006.