The Efficacy of Short-term Interferon-beta Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C Patients with Low Virus Load

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Objective The aim of this study was to elucidate the efficacy of short-term interferon (IFN) therapy for chronic hepatitis C patients with low virus load. Methods The present study was a retrospective cohort study. Inclusion criteria were biopsy-proven chronic hepatitis, the serum hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA level of less than 100 KIU/ml, IFN period of 8weeks or less. One hundred and eleven consecutive patients satisfied above criteria were treated with IFN-beta (dose: 6 MU, daily for 4, 6, or 8 weeks). Results Background of clinical profiles were as follows: median (range) age=56 (20-73) years, male/female=64/47, genotype 1b/2a/2b=40/68/3, and median (range) HCV-RNA= 34 (4.5-81) KIU/ml. Out of 111, 64 patients (57.7%) had sustained viral response (SVR). Based on the difference of HCV genotype, the SVR rate was 47.5% (19/40) in genotype 1 and 63.3% (45/71) in genotype 2. In genotype 1, the SVR rate in patients treated with the 8-week-regimen was significantly higher than that in patients treated with the 4- or 6-week regimen. In contrast, in genotype 2, the SVR in patients treated with the 8-week regimen was not significantly different from that in patients treated with the 6-week regimen. None of the patients had severe IFN-related side effects. Conclusions The 6 or 8-week regiment of IFN-beta therapy is one selection of therapy for chronic hepatitis C patients who have tended to have a SVR and who show IFN-related adverse events.