title: Treatment of chronic hepatitis C with lymphoblastoid interferon alpha in elderly patients.
abstract: One hundred patients with severe Chronic C Hepatitis, > 60 years of age and a life expectancy > 10 yrs were randomised to receive a course of lymphoblastoid a-IFN or a non specific support therapy as control. Patients randomised to IFN (no. 50) were treated with 3MU i.m. every two days for 2 months and then with 6MU i.m. every second two days for additional 10 months. All patients were followed-up for 12 months at the end of treatment. At the end of treatment, 30/50 patients in the IFN group showed a complete remission with normalisation of ALT and AST values (60%). Partial remission occurred in 11 patients (22%) whose transaminase values improved but did not normalise. No response was seen in 9 cases (18%) who showed similar pre- and post- treatment transaminase levels. On the contrary, normalisation of ALT-AST was observed in just two patients assigned to the non-specific therapy, whereas pre- and post-treatment values were similar in the remaining 48 patients. In patients receiving IFN a marked histological improvement was observed at the end of therapy in 22 responders (73.3%) and in 6 partial or non responders (30%) treated with IFN. No histological improvement was observed in control patients. At the end of the 12-month follow-up (24 months from the beginning of the study), 12 responders relapsed (40%) showing levels of transaminase which returned to the pre-treatment values within the second month from the IFN discontinuation. Therefore 18 out of 50 patients (36%) showed a long-term response to lymphoblastoid interferon. Lymphoblastoid a-IFN is an effective and safe therapy in elderly patients whose life expectancy justify its use and generates responses which are similar to those observed in younger subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatrics, University of Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Terranova
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Luca
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D016898:Interferon-alpha