Although a number of studies have addressed the issue, it remains unclear whether it is possible to safely shorten the duration of combination antiviral therapy with pegylated interferon plus ribavirin for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 2 infection who achieve rapid response.

In the present study, published in Liver International, Japanese researchers compared the efficacy of antiviral combination therapy with pegylated interferon plus ribavirin for 8 versus 24 weeks in patients with HCV genotype 2 and with rapid virological response (RVR), or undetectable HCV viral load after 4 weeks of therapy.

The study enrolled 61 patients. Serum HCV RNA was not detected 4 weeks after the start of treatment in 32 patients. These 32 patients with an RVR were randomly assigned to 8-week (n=15) or 24-week (n=17) treatment regimens. Patients in the 8-week group who relapsed underwent 24-week re-treatment.

Results

In conclusion, the authors wrote, "An 8-week regimen of combination antiviral therapy with peginterferon and ribavirin yielded an increase in the relapse rate, indicating the limitation of a reduction of treatment below 12 weeks in patients with genotype 2, after RVR."

Department of Gastroenterology, Ogaki Municipal Hospital, Ogaki, Japan.

8/05/07

Reference
H Toyoda, T Kumada, S Kiriyama, and others. Eight-week regimen of antiviral combination therapy with peginterferon and ribavirin for patients with chronic hepatitis C with hepatitis C virus genotype 2 and a rapid virological response. Liver International. April 1, 2008 (Epub).