title: Efficacy of prolonged treatment following combination with ribavirin and interferon for chronic hepatitis type C: A pilot study.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy of the prolonged interferon monotherapy following combination treatment. Seventy-six patients were enrolled. Of these, 7 were withdrawn while undergoing treatment with interferon combined with ribavirin, and 12 remained positive for HCV-RNA at the completion of the combination treatment. We studied 57 Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C due to genotype 1b HCV of a high viral load. These patients tested negative for HCV-RNA at the completion of the combination treatment for 24 weeks. After the combination treatment, 29 patients of the prolonged treatment group successively received interferon-alpha monotherapy for 24 weeks, while 28 patients in the combination treatment alone group received no medication. The rate of a sustained virologic response (SVR) was higher in the prolonged treatment group (41%, 12/29) than in the combination treatment alone group (25%, 7/28), but not significantly. Patients who became HCV-RNA negative by 4 weeks after the start of the combination treatment showed an SVR rate of 86%. The prolonged treatment resulted in SVR in all five patients who newly became HCV-RNA negative at 12 weeks. In conclusion, the prolonged treatment was effective for patients who newly became HCV-RNA negative at 12 weeks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Shin-Kokura Hospital, 1-3-1 Kanada, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu City 803-8505, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.forename: Yoichiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kashiwagi
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakashima
authors.forename: Hironori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanimoto
authors.forename: Junya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shimono
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kajiwara
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Maruyama
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagano
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Higashi
authors.forename: Tamotsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mukai
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsui
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Seizaburo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kashiwagi
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ishibashi