A randomized trial of pegylated‐interferon‐α2a plus ribavirin with or without amantadine in the re‐treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C not responding to standard interferon and ribavirin

Abstract

SUMMARY BackgroundThere is yet no established treatment for chronic hepatitis C patients non-responder to standard interferon and ribavirin.

Retreatment with pegylated interferon plus ribavirin of chronic hepatitis C non-responders to interferon plus ribavirin: A meta-analysis

“…The main features of the trials included in the meta-analysis are shown in Table 2 in Appendix. Fourteen, which accounted for 3898 patients, were reported as full papers [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Among the trials, three studies did not report the number of participating centers, while all remaining studies were multicenter trials, with the number of centers ranging from 2 to 133; among these studies 8 reported data on the prevalence of patients with cirrhosis (357/1282 = 27.8%).…”

“…Of the remaining 42 full-text articles, 30 were excluded because they did not meet inclusion criteria, leaving 14 fulllength papers [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] meeting criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Finally, 6 abstracts identified by manual search [17][18][19][20][21][22], were also included, only for the evaluation of the publication bias.…”

“…Several studies of retreatment with pegylated IFN (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin in patients who failed to respond to the combination of pegylated and non-pegylated IFN plus ribavirin have been published [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. The results of these studies are inconclusive or conflicting because of the relatively small samples and the differences in patient characteristics, study design combining relapsers and nonresponders, doses of IFN and ribavirin administered in the first course, and retreatment regimens.…”

British HIV Association guidelines for the management of coinfection with HIV‐1 and hepatitis B or C virus 2010

“…Responses in all groups are less than in individuals receiving pegylated interferon and ribavirin de novo [214][215][216]. When re-treatment is considered, all modifiable factors known to affect response should be changed to meet optimal conditions, where possible.…”

“…In the HIVnegative population, re-treatment may be considered in individuals who have failed to respond with an SVR to non-gold standard therapy, i.e. nonpegylated interferon with or without ribavirin, or in individuals with progression of fibrosis [215,216].…”