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| |  CSCI-RCPSC: Consensus Interferon Effective In Hepatitis C Non-Responders By Louise Gagnon Special to DG News OTTAWA, ON -- September 24, 2001 -- High dose consensus interferon generates a virological response in chronic hepatitis C patients who do not respond to standard treatment with interferon alpha 2b and ribavirin. These findings are from a study presented yesterday (September 23) at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation-Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The study of 24 patients demonstrated that consensus interferon, a genetically engineered molecule, might be an alternative to interferon alpha 2B and ribavirin. Previous studies have shown that consensus interferon is more effective than interferon alpha 2b in patients who had high viral loads and in those who have a genotype 1 infection, features which are common to patients who haven’t responded to all antiviral therapies. "We wanted to evaluate how effective a strong dose of consensus interferon (15 µg/day) would be in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection," said Dr. David Moskovitz, the study’s principal investigator and a member of the department of internal medicine at the University of Toronto, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. "These patients were not successful on previous therapy of interferon alpha 2b combined with ribavirin." Patients included in the study were positive for hepatitis C virus RNA and had serum concentrations that were 1.5 times the upper limit of normal. Treatment was discontinued in those whose serum hepatitis C virus RNA was still detectable after 12 weeks of drug therapy. In those patients who began to respond to therapy(i.e., hepatitis C RNA was undetectable), treatment was continued at 15 µg/day three times per week for another 36 weeks. The hepatitis C RNA was measured by polymerase chain reaction using the Roche Amplicor assay. Of the 24 patients, 18 (75 percent) were infected with genotype 1, one with genotype 2, one with genotype 3, and four with genotype 3. Twenty of the patients were men, and four were women. The mean age of patients was 49 years. Six patients withdrew from the study prior to 12 weeks because of side effects. Of the 18 patients who completed 12 weeks of therapy on consensus interferon, nine had undetectable hepatitis C RNA. Of that subgroup of nine patients, seven completed 48 weeks of treatment, while two withdrew early because of side effects. The virus remained undetectable in three patients at 48 weeks. After six months of follow up, two patients remained with no detectable hepatitis C RNA in their sera. "The results suggest that high dose interferon may produce a virological response in patients who have not responded to standard therapy of interferon alpha 2b and ribavirin," said Dr. Moskovitz.
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