Efficacy of prolonged treatment following combination with ribavirin and interferon for chronic hepatitis type C: A pilot study.
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 Of these, 7 were withdrawn while undergoing treatment with interferon combined with ribavirin, and 12 remained positive for HCV-RNA at the completion of the combination treatment.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.
Nomura
Hideyuki
H
Department of Internal Medicine, Shin-Kokura Hospital, 1-3-1 Kanada, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu City 803-8505, Japan.
Kashiwagi
Yoichiro
Y
Nakashima
Hisashi
H
Tanimoto
Hironori
H
Shimono
Junya
J
Kajiwara
Eiji
E
Maruyama
Toshihiro
T
Yamashita
Nobuyuki
N
Nagano
Masanori
M
Higashi
Masashi
M
Mukai
Tamotsu
T
Matsui
Yutaka
Y
Hayashi
Jun
J
Kashiwagi
Seizaburo
S
Ishibashi
Hiromi
H