Early Prediction of Successful Treatment for Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Taiwan
Status:
Unknown status
Trial end date:
2008-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global health problem, which may lead to chronic
hepatitis, cirrhosis, hepatic decompensation and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Recently,
treatment with peginterferon alfa plus ribavirin has become the standard of care for patients
with chronic hepatitis C. While genotype 2 patients can have higher sustained virologic
response (SVR) rates to 80-90%, genotype 1 patients generally have low SVR rates of only
40-50%. In contrast, genotype 1 Taiwanese patients have superior SVR rates than those in
Western countries. Despite the overall improved response to this combination therapy, more
than 75% of patients suffer from treatment-related adverse events and the costs remain high,
which make individualized therapy of paramount importance to maximize treatment response and
minimize adverse events.
HCV viral kinetics with interferon-based therapies have been studied recently to evaluate
patient responses. Early viral kinetics shown to have favorable SVR rates, which make shorter
treatment duration possible. However, different viral kinetics were found through ethnicity.
Recently, a pilot study to evaluate the viral kinetics of 6 Taiwanese patients with HCV
infection who received peginterferon alfa plus ribavirin therapy has shown superior early
viral kinetics to those in Caucasian patients. Based on the favorable SVR rates in treating
Taiwanese patients with chronic hepatitis C, the investigators aimed to conduct a large
confirmatory study to evaluate the viral kinetics and try to define the optimal treatment for
these patients.