A multicenter, randomized trial of daily high-dose interferon-alfa 2b for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C: pretreatment stratification by viral burden and genotype

Abstract

Daily, high dose interferon rapidly dropped HCV RNA and increased initial and end-of-treatment response rates when compared to t.i.w. regimens. This effect, independent of viral burden and genotype, suggests that patients with unfavorable viral characteristics might benefit from an intensive regimen that promotes rapid viral clearance. These data support further study of the use of high-dose induction regimens. However, improvements in sustained response rates will require additional therapeutic maneuvers such as prolonged therapy or the adjunctive use of ribavirin.

Pegylated interferons: What role will they play in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C?

“…The great majority of patients treated with high-dose interferon relapsed following either the discontinuation of therapy or when the dose or dosing frequency was reduced. SVR appeared to be no greater in patients treated with higher doses of interferon than with standard doses administered three times weekly [15,16]. The same results have been observed when high or daily doses of interferon have been combined with ribavirin [17][18][19].…”

Infection with chronic hepatitis C virus and liver transplantation: A role for interferon therapy before transplantation

“…Nonetheless, a substantial body of data relative to the efficacy of IFN therapy in cirrhotic patients has been accumulated. [14][15][16][17][18] In general, the response to IFN therapy of HCV in cirrhotic patients is poor and considerably less than that seen in noncirrhotic patients. Nonetheless, some 10% to 15% of patients with cirrhosis have cleared virus as a result of IFN therapy.…”

Treatment with daily consensus interferon (CIFN) plus ribavirin in non-responder patients with chronic hepatitis C: A randomized open-label pilot study

“…Preliminary data from a single center study presented in abstract form, suggested that daily dosing of CIFN in combination with ribavirin can achieve SVRs of 38-45% in non-responder patients to standard IFN and ribavirin depending on the CIFN dose [13]. High-doseinduction, although not effective in studies with standard IFN [14][15][16], seemed to have further improved the SVR in this study [13]. Cotler and colleagues [17] assessed the firstphase viral kinetics in 20 previous non-responders after a single dose of 15 or 30 mg CIFN and demonstrated a significantly sharper decline of the HCV-RNA with the higher dose after 24 h (0.8 and 1.5, respectively).…”