Brief Report Open Access
Copyright ©The Author(s) 1997. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 15, 1997; 3(2): 77-77
Published online Jun 15, 1997. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v3.i2.77
Short- and long-term effect of interferon therapy for chronic hepatitis C
Zhen-Ya Tang, Jun-Ying Qi, Han-Xing Shen, Dong-Liang Yang, Lian-Jie Hao, Clinical Immunology Research Unit, Department of Infectious Diseases, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical University, Wuhan 430030, Hubei Province, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Received: September 14, 1996
Revised: January 31, 1997
Accepted: March 1, 1997
Published online: June 15, 1997

Abstract

AIM: To study the short and long-term effect of interferon therapy for chronic hepatitis C.

METHODS: Sixty-eight patients with chronic hepatitis C were treated with interferon (3 × 106 IU, im/2 d, for a course of three months) with 1 to 5 courses of treatment and followed for 1.5 to 3 years after the therapy.

RESULTS: According to antiviral effect of interferon, 76.5% (52/68) of the cases had a complete response by the end of the first therapy course, while 20.6% (14/68) and 2.9% (2/68) had a partial response or non-response. Over a half of the patients with a complete response (27/52, 51.9%) relapsed within 6 to 10 mo after the first course. Of the original cohort, nineteen patients received two courses of therapy, while one patient received three and another three received five courses of therapy. The follow-up for these patients was between 1.5 to 3 years, at which time 29 (42.7%) of the patients sustained a complete response, with four of them having HCV RNA positive serum, while the others had either a partial (37/68, 2.9%) or non-response.

CONCLUSION: Interferon therapy had a high short-term complete response but a low long-term complete response in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C.

Key Words: Hepatitis C/therapy, Interferons/therapeutic use



Footnotes

Original title: China National Journal of New Gastroenterology (1995-1997) renamed World Journal of Gastroenterology (1998-)

S- Editor: Filipodia L- Editor: Jennifer E- Editor: Liu WX

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