Background/aims: The effectiveness of combination therapy with conventional or pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin in patients with chronic hepatitis C is well understood. However, the profound investigation about complications of the treatment has been rarely reported in Korea, where patients have broader spectrum of disease manifestations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and complications of the combination therapy of interferon alpha and ribavirin in patients with chronic hepatitis C.
Methods: Two hundred and forty patients with chronic hepatitis C were included. All patients were treated with interferon alpha (3 million units thrice a week) in combination with ribavirin (800-1,200 mg, depending on body weight). Patients were treated for 6 or 12 months according to the genotypes (genotype 1; 12 months, non-1; 6 months). We retrospectively evaluated ETR (end of treatment response) and SVR (sustained virologic response) on the basis of intent-to-treat in patients completing the therapy.
Results: In 154 patients who had completed the therapy, ETR was 79.2% and SVR was 61.0%. Multivariate analysis showed that genotype and early virologic response at 3 months of treatment were independent predictive factors of SVR. Due to insufficient response, 11.3% of the patients discontinued the therapy. In addition, 24.5% of the patients prematurely discontinued the therapy due to adverse events including aggravated liver function (15.4%), failure to return (7.9%), and others (1.2%). Dose modifications of interferon alpha or ribavirin were required due to anemia (15.4%), neutropenia (8.8%), or thrombocytopenia (4.6%).
Conclusions: The overall SVR of patients who had completed the combination therapy with interferon alpha and ribavirin was 61.0%. However, about one third of the patients discontinued the therapy prematurely due to insufficient response, adverse events and/or noncompliance.