Short-course
Pegylated Interferon for Acute Hepatitis C
Acute
hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection resolves spontaneously without treatment in
a minority of patients. Past studies have shown that early treatment with interferon-based
therapy during the acute phase (the first 6 months) produces high sustained
response rates, but an optimal treatment strategy has not yet been defined.
As described
in the February 2007 Journal of Viral Hepatitis, Italian researchers conducted
a multicenter open-label study to investigate the therapeutic performance of a
short course of pegylated interferon-alpha in patients with acute HCV infection.
A total of 46 participants were treated with 1.0-1.5 mcg/kg/week pegylated
interferon alpha-2b (PegIntron) for 12 weeks.
•
8 subjects (17%) relapsed
after the completion of treatment.
•
4 (9%) were non-responders
(9%).
•
Factors that predicted
SVR were:
- lower peak HCV viral load; - receiving at least 1.2 mcg/kg/week
of pegylated interferon; - undetectable HCV-RNA at week 4 and at week 12.
•
Treatment was well
tolerated, with only 1 dropout (2%).
Conclusion
In
conclusion, the authors wrote, "in patients with early (week 4) viral response,
a short course of [pegylated interferon alpha], at a weekly dose > 1.2 mcg/kg,
may be a valuable option for the treatment of acute HCV hepatitis."
02/09/07
Reference G
Calleri, G Cariti, F Gaiottino, and others. A short course of pegylated interferon-alpha
in acute HCV hepatitis. Journal of Viral Hepatitis 14(2): 116-121. February
2007.
