Usefulness of two-step interferon rebound therapy for refractory chronic hepatitis C

• Published in: Kanzo Vol. 41; no. 6; pp. 396 - 402
• Main Authors: TSUDA, Natsuko, MASUZAWA, Manabu, YUKI, Nobukazu, SUGIYASU, Yasunori, KANEKO, Akira, KATO, Michio, IYODA, Kenya, IKEDA, Masahiro, KOMORI, Masato, HAYASHI, Norio, SHIMIZU, Kengo, NISHIMURA, Yoshiya, MICHIDA, Tomoki, OKA, Mitsunari, YAMAMOTO, Kenji, KUROSAWA, Kazuhei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japan Society of Hepatology 2000
• Subjects: Two-step interferon rebound therapy
• ISSN: 0451-4203; 1881-3593
• DOI: 10.2957/kanzo.41.396

We evaluated the usefulness of two-step interferon rebound therapy (TIRT) in case of chronic hepatitis C with a high viral load of genotype lb, which is considered refractory to IFN therapy. In TIRT, the second step of IFN treatment was initiated during the precipitous decline of the HCV-RNA level (to less than 1 Meq/ml, as a rule) after the rebound follwing the first step of IFN treatment (patients not showing the precipitous decline were not treated further). In this study, the first step in IFN therapy was the repeated administration of IFN- β for one month (3MU, twice a day) or the administration of natural IFN-α for 2weeks (10MU) following administration of IFN-β for one month (3MU, twice a day). The period of IFN treatment was 6 months, which was within the period covered by healty insurance plans. The HCV-RNA disappearance rate at 6 months after IFN therapy was 20.0% in all patients, and 60.0% in patients with HCV-RNA level less than 1 Meq/mlat the beginning of the second step of IFN therapy, which were higher than the values reported in previous studies, confirming the usefulness of TIRT for refractory chronic hepatitis C.