Dose comparison study of pegylated interferon‐α‐2b plus ribavirin in naïve Japanese patients with hepatitis C virus genotype 2: A randomized clinical trial

Abstract

The dose of PEG-I to be used at the start of therapy should be 1.5-microg/kg BW in naïve Japanese patients infected with hepatitis C virus genotype 2.

The arterial duct… the natural substitute for a surgical shunt?

“…Finally, the results of the IDEAL study are only directly applicable to North America and patients infected with genotype 1 and should not be extended to other genotypes or ethnic backgrounds 17. For example, a recent Japanese dose comparison study for peginterferon alfa‐2b combination therapy for 24 weeks showed significant differences between the standard 1.5 μg/kg dose or a low dose of 1.0 μg/kg (SVR = 74.1% versus 38.5%; P < 0.013), although the ribavirin dosing was rather low in this study 18…”

When less may not be best—The challenge of individualising antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C infection

“…Thus the study of Kawaoka et al 7 . reported in this edition of the Journal is of particular interest.…”

Predictive value of the IL28B polymorphism on the effect of interferon therapy in chronic hepatitis C patients with genotypes 2a and 2b

“…Although pathological features of these genotypes are similar [9,10], interferon therapy is more effective against genotype 2 than genotype 1 [11,12]. Compared to the less than 50% of genotype 1 patients who respond to therapy [13][14][15][16][17][18][19], more than 80% of genotype 2 patients who received 24-week peg-interferon and ribavirin (PEG-RBV) combination therapy achieved sustained virological response (SVR), defined as absence of HCV RNA six months after the cessation of therapy. Because of this otherwise high success rate, the small subset of genotype 2 patients who fail to respond to therapy should be examined more closely.…”