Induction therapy with twice-daily interferon-beta does not improve the therapeutic efficacy of consensus interferon monotherapy for chronic hepatitis C.
We examined therapeutic superiority of induction therapy with twice-daily IFN-beta (3X2=6 million units/day) onto 6-months consensus interferon monotherapy for chronic hepatitis C. Patients were randomly assigned to monotherapy without (group I, n=16) and with induction therapy (group II, n=12). The mean age of group II was older than that of group I, and other baseline condition was not statistically significant. Sustained virological response (SVR) rates of group I and II were 81.3% (13/16) and 58.3% (7/12), respectively (p=0.365). SVR rates in patients with genotype 1b were 66.7% (4/6) and 0% (0/2, because of drop-out), and those with high viral load were 70% (7/10) and 75% (6/8) in group I and II, respectively (p=1.000). Drop-out rates during therapy were 6.3% (1/16) and 33.3% (4/12) in group I and II, respectively (p=0.176). Age less than 50 years was the only independent factor that was shown by multivariate logistic model analysis to be associated with a sustained virological response. Although randomization failed to produce and equal age distribution in the two groups in this study, our results suggest that induction therapy with twice-daily IFN-beta has no beneficial effect on the efficacy of monotherapy with consensus interferon, probably because of the higher drop-out rates and incidence of adverse reactions with induction therapy.
Saito
Hidetsugu
H
Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan. hsaito@sc.itc.keio.ac.jp
Tada
Shinichiro
S
Ebinuma
Hirotoshi
H
Ishii
Hiromasa
H
Kashiwazaki
Kazuo
K
Nishida
Jiro
J
Yoshida
Takeshi
T
Zeki
Shigeyuki
S
Yoshida
Hideo
H
Yoshioka
Masahiro
M
Inagaki
Yasutaka
Y
Kumagai
Naoki
N
Hibi
Toshifumi
T
D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D016899:Interferon-beta / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000637:Transaminases / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism
D016899:Interferon-beta; D000637:Transaminases