24 Weeks Treatment with Peginterferon Alfa-2b (PegIntron) plus Ribavirin Is Effi

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24 Weeks Treatment with Peginterferon Alfa-2b (PegIntron) plus

Ribavirin Is Efficacious in Patients with Chronic HCV Genotype 1 and

Low Pretreatment HCV RNA Levels

Previous studies using standard interferon and ribavirin combination

therapy have suggested that patients infected with HCV-1 and a low

pretreatment HCV-RNA level can be treated for 24 weeks without

compromising sustained virologic response rates.

The aim of the present study was to investigate this schedule in the

era of pegylated interferon alfa plus ribavirin.

Patients chronically infected with HCV-1 (n=235) and a screening

viremia </=600,000IU/mL (real-time PCR) were treated with

peginterferon alfa-2b (PegIntron) 1.5mug/kg subcutaneously once

weekly plus ribavirin 800-1400mg/day based on body weight for 24

weeks.

Results

End-of-treatment and sustained virologic response rates were 80 and

50%, respectively.

The 48-week historical control (Manns et al., Lancet 2001;358:958-

65) had similar end-of-treatment (74%) but higher sustained virologic

response rates (71%).

This difference was due to a high virologic relapse rate after 24

weeks of therapy (37%) compared with the historical control (4%).

A subset of patients who had undetectable serum HCV-RNA at treatment

week 4, however, achieved similar sustained virologic response rate

(89%) as in the control group (85%).

In conclusion, the authors write, " HCV-1 infected patients with a low

baseline HCV-RNA concentration who become HCV-RNA negative at week 4

may be treated for 24 weeks without compromising sustained virologic

response rates. "

Department of Medicine, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg/Saar,

Germany.