Efficacy of interferon therapy in elderly patients with chronic hepatitis C.
OBJECTIVE
We assessed the efficacy and safety of interferon (IFN) monotherapy in 84 elderly patients aged > or =65 years with chronic hepatitis C in a retrospective cohort study.


METHODS
Twenty-two of the 84 elderly patients were treated with IFN at a dose of 6 million units daily for 6-8 weeks, 18 patients were treated 2-3 times a week for 24 weeks and 44 patients were treated daily for 2-8 weeks and 2-3 times a week for 16-24 weeks.


RESULTS
A sustained virological response (SVR) occurred in 35.7% (30/84) of the patients by intention-to-treat analysis. Multivariate analysis showed that patients achieved a significant SVR when: (1) serum HCV-RNA level before IFN therapy was <100 KIU/ml (p < 0.0001) and (2) staging of liver fibrosis was mild (p = 0.040). Eleven (13.1%) patients discontinued the IFN regimen due to adverse events. Regarding factors predicting discontinuation of IFN, univariate analysis showed that patients aged >70 years were prone to drop out of therapy due to adverse events in IFN therapy (p = 0.009).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that IFN administration is suitable for 65- to 70-year-old patients with chronic hepatitis C without genotype 1b and high virus load.
Koyama
Rikako
R
Department of Gastroenterology, and Hepatic Research Unit, Toranomon Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. rikako@pm.highway.ne.jp
Arase
Yasuji
Y
Ikeda
Kenji
K
Suzuki
Fumitaka
F
Suzuki
Yoshiyuki
Y
Saitoh
Satoshi
S
Kobayashi
Masahiro
M
Akuta
Norio
N
Someya
Takashi
T
Hosaka
Tetsuya
T
Sezaki
Hitomi
H
Kobayashi
Mariko
M
Kumada
Hiromitsu
H
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D007372:Interferons / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D019562:Viral Load
D000998:Antiviral Agents; D007372:Interferons