Study of interferon therapy for chronic hepatitis C: Retreatment of lymphoblastoid interferon for short term responders

• Published in: Kanzo Vol. 36; no. 6; pp. 359 - 364
• Main Authors: FUKUI, Shoji, OSADA, Tatsuro, TOMOE, Masai, YOSHIDA, Hideki, IINO, Shiro, TOHYAMA, Hiroki, MURAYAMA, Masahiro, IWABUCHI, Shogo, IIYAMA, Tazuro, MUTO, Toshiya, UCHIKOSHI, Toshiyuki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japan Society of Hepatology 1995
• Subjects: HCV-genotype
• ISSN: 0451-4203; 1881-3593
• DOI: 10.2957/kanzo.36.359

The interferon (IFN) therapy was done on 41 patients with chronic hepatitis C who were treated with 6MU of lymphoblastoid interferon (IFN) α for 2 weeks, daily, followed by three times/week for 10 weeks (one cycle: total 252MU). Normalization of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were seen in 71% (29/41) of patients treated with one cycle therapy, of whom some 34% (10/29) relapsed after treatment cessation. 14 (34%) of 41 patients had complete response (CR) with sustained normal ALT for more than 6 months and remained 15 cases (37%) regarded as transient response (TR), Within 3 months after the first therapy, 10 patients with marked ALT relapse received the second cycle of IFN therapy by the same schedule. All 10 patients responded to IFN at the end of the second therapy, but all patients relapsed as the similar course of first therapy. During the two cycle of IFN therapy, in 8 of 10 patients serum HCV RNA by PCR method became undetectable at the end of first therapy, however, those levels returned to approximately similar levels of pre-treatment when the second therapy were started. Those results indicate that CR could not be induced by the same schedule of IFN retreatment for the patients who underwent TR on the first therapy.