title: Natural interferon-beta treatment for patients with chronic hepatitis C in Japan.
abstract: Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can cause liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Several studies have demonstrated that the eradication of HCV reduces the occurrence of HCC. In Japan, as many people live to an advanced age, HCV-infected patients are also getting older, and the age at HCC diagnosis has also increased. Although older HCV-infected patients have a risk of developing HCC, the treatment response to peginterferon-alpha plus ribavirin therapy is relatively poor in these patients because of drop-out or discontinuation of this treatment due to adverse events. It is established that the mechanism of action between interferon-alpha and interferon-beta is slightly different. Short-term natural interferon-beta monotherapy is effective for patients with acute hepatitis C and patients infected with HCV genotype 2 and low viral loads. Natural interferon-beta plus ribavirin for 48 wk or for 24 wk are also effective for some patients with HCV genotype 1 or HCV genotype 2. Natural interferon-beta plus ribavirin has been used for certain "difficult-to-treat" HCV-infected patients. In the era of direct-acting anti-virals, natural interferon-beta plus ribavirin may be one of the therapeutic options for special groups of HCV-infected patients. In the near future, signal transduction pathways of interferon-beta will inform further directions.
authors.affiliation: Reina Sasaki, Tatsuo Kanda, Shingo Nakamoto, Yuki Haga, Masato Nakamura, Shin Yasui, Xia Jiang, Shuang Wu, Makoto Arai, Osamu Yokosuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Reina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.affiliation: Reina Sasaki, Tatsuo Kanda, Shingo Nakamoto, Yuki Haga, Masato Nakamura, Shin Yasui, Xia Jiang, Shuang Wu, Makoto Arai, Osamu Yokosuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Tatsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kanda
authors.affiliation: Reina Sasaki, Tatsuo Kanda, Shingo Nakamoto, Yuki Haga, Masato Nakamura, Shin Yasui, Xia Jiang, Shuang Wu, Makoto Arai, Osamu Yokosuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Shingo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakamoto
authors.affiliation: Reina Sasaki, Tatsuo Kanda, Shingo Nakamoto, Yuki Haga, Masato Nakamura, Shin Yasui, Xia Jiang, Shuang Wu, Makoto Arai, Osamu Yokosuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Haga
authors.affiliation: Reina Sasaki, Tatsuo Kanda, Shingo Nakamoto, Yuki Haga, Masato Nakamura, Shin Yasui, Xia Jiang, Shuang Wu, Makoto Arai, Osamu Yokosuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.affiliation: Reina Sasaki, Tatsuo Kanda, Shingo Nakamoto, Yuki Haga, Masato Nakamura, Shin Yasui, Xia Jiang, Shuang Wu, Makoto Arai, Osamu Yokosuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Shin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yasui
authors.affiliation: Reina Sasaki, Tatsuo Kanda, Shingo Nakamoto, Yuki Haga, Masato Nakamura, Shin Yasui, Xia Jiang, Shuang Wu, Makoto Arai, Osamu Yokosuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Reina Sasaki, Tatsuo Kanda, Shingo Nakamoto, Yuki Haga, Masato Nakamura, Shin Yasui, Xia Jiang, Shuang Wu, Makoto Arai, Osamu Yokosuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Reina Sasaki, Tatsuo Kanda, Shingo Nakamoto, Yuki Haga, Masato Nakamura, Shin Yasui, Xia Jiang, Shuang Wu, Makoto Arai, Osamu Yokosuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arai
authors.affiliation: Reina Sasaki, Tatsuo Kanda, Shingo Nakamoto, Yuki Haga, Masato Nakamura, Shin Yasui, Xia Jiang, Shuang Wu, Makoto Arai, Osamu Yokosuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Yokosuka
keywords: Hepatitis C virus; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Interferon resistance; Interferon-beta; Ribavirin