It is well established that black patients do not respond as well as whites to interferon-based therapy for chronic hepatitis C, but the reasons for this are unclear.

The IDEAL study arguably generated the largest amount of data to date about hepatitis C in African American patients. Briefly, IDEAL included more than 3000 participants-nearly 20% African American-who were randomly assigned to receive standard or low-dose pegylated interferon alfa-2b (PegIntron) or alfa-2a (Pegasys) plus weight-adjusted ribavirin.

Interestingly, the data indicate that African Americans who respond early to treatment achieve a similar rate of sustained virological response as non-black patients, with similar side effects and tolerability across the 3 treatment regimens. For further details about the study and its findings, follow the links below:

 Link to slide set

Link to HIV and Hepatitis.com article on the IDEAL Study

12/09/08

Reference
J McCone, K-Q Hu, JG McHutchison, and others (for the IDEAL Study Team). SVR in African American Patients: Results of the IDEAL Study Individualized Dosing Efficacy vs Flat Dosing to Assess Optimal Pegylated Interferon Therapy. 59th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD 2008). San Francisco. October 31-November 4, 2008. Oral abstract 268.