Treatment responses in Asians and Caucasians with chronic hepatitis C infection

Abstract

AIM:To conduct a multicentre retrospective review of virological response rates in Asians infected with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C (CHC) treated with combination interferon and ribavirin and then to compare their responses to that among Caucasians. METHODS: Asian patients infected with genotype 1 CHC treated at 4 Australian centres between 2001 to 2005 were identified through hospital databases. Baseline demographic characteristics, biochemical, virological and histological data and details of treatment were collected. Sustained virological responses (SVR) in this cohort were then compared to that in Caucasian subjects, matched by genotype, age, gender and the stage of hepatic fibrosis. RESULTS: A total of 108 Asians with genotype 1 CHC were identified. The end of treatment response (ETR) for the cohort was 79% while the SVR was 67%. Due to the relatively advanced age of the Asian cohort, only sixty-four subjects could be matched with Caucasians. The ETR among matched Asians and Caucasians was 81% and 56% respectively (P = 0.003), while the SVR rates were 73% and 36% (P < 0.001) respectively. This difference remained significant after adjusting for other predictive variables.CONCLUSION: Genotype 1 CHC in Asian subjects is associated with higher rates of virological response compared to that in Caucasians.

Two IL28B polymorphisms are associated with the treatment response of different genotypes of hepatitis C in different racial populations: A meta-analysis

“…Moreover, Asian HCV patients had a higher frequency of the common homozygote. Therefore, as demonstrated in previous studies (45,46), Asian HCV patients had a better response to treatment than European patients in this study. Ge et al (12) found that the SVR rates across different population groups displayed a striking concordance with C allele frequency.…”

The Distribution of Genotype and Allelic Frequency of IL28B Gene Polymorphism in Andhra Pradesh, India

“…Interestingly, it has also been well documented that East Asians have higher SVR rates than patients of European ancestry. 22,23 The SVR rates across different population groups displayed a striking concordance with C allele frequency which emphasizes the greater importance of individual genotype than ethnicity in predicting treatment response. 24 A previous study from Germany, extended to HCV genotype 2 and 3 infected patients, also analyzed 200 healthy controls for comparison and reported the frequency of CC, CT, and TT genotypes with 49%, 42.5%, and 8.5%, respectively.…”

Rate and Factors Affecting Treatment Uptake of Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C in a Tertiary Referral Hospital

“…Secondly, ethnicity has been shown to be a major predictive factor for uptaking treatment in previous studies, with AfricanAmericans and Hispanics less likely than Caucasians to commence on treatment [14,15]. Asian patients were shown to have different social demographics and different modes of acquisition [16]. They also have different views on doctors' role in their health.…”