Therapeutic Efficacy of Combination Therapy with Alpha Interferon and Ribavirin in Chronic Hepatitis C

Yoon, Byung Chul; Kim, Hyung Ju; Kim, Kil Su; Yoo, Ho Dae; Lee, Sang Uk; Han, Byung Hoon

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Interferon alpha therapy is known to be efficient in treating chronic hepatitis C, but only 10-20% of all treated cases demonstrate sustained response to interferon. The aim of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of combined therapy with ribavirin and interferon alpha for the initial treatment of chronic hepatitis C.
METHODS
One hundred and ten patients with chronic hepatitis C were included in this study. Forty patients were treated with interferon alpha (three million units, thrice weekly) in combination with ribavirin (600 mg/day) for 6 months (group I). Seventy patients were treated with same dose of interferon alpha alone for 6 months (groups II). Changes in the levels of ALT and HCV RNA were observed for 6 months after the completion of treatment.
RESULTS
At the end of treatment, 57.5% of group I showed treatment response compared with 30% of group II (p=0.008). At the 6 months follow up, 37.5% of group I showed sustained response (SR) compared with 17.1% of group II (p=0.022). There was no difference in relapse rate between the two groups. The univariate analysis to identify predictive factors for SR and relapse revealed that age, baseline serum ALT, gamma GT in group I and HAI in group II were statistically significant.
CONCLUSION
The combined therapy with interferon alpha and ribavirin is more effective than the therapy with interferon alpha alone for the treatment of naive patients with chronic hepatitis C.