Hepatitis C, proper treatment

Posted By  HFHS M.D.-dm on February 26, 1998 at 10:41:32:

In Reply to: Hepatitis C, proper treatment posted by Jere on February 21, 1998 at 13:21:01:

  I have several questions re: Hepatitis C treatment with interferon alpha 2b 3mu x 3/wk:

  1.  How long after a patient goes to undetectable HCV RNA by PCR should Interferon alpha 2b tratment ordinarily be continued in order to achieve a maximum chance to sustain a long term response?

  2.  Assuming normal patient tolerance to Interferon injections, under what circumstances would it be medically sound practice to discontinue IFN therapy at the exact moment in time when a patient returns a negative HCV PCR?

  Thank you for your answer to the above,

  Jere

[HFHS-MD-dm]

Dear Jere:

I really appreciated your questions about the therapy of hepatitis C infections.  They are extremely important.  You ask two questions.  The first asks how long should interferon alpha-2b be continued once a patient receiving interferon no longer has detectable HCV RNA by PCR in his serum (blood test).  Typically patients on interferon are evaluated closely 12 weeks after interferon is started to determine their response.  If patients have no detectable HCV RNA (by PCR) at 12 weeks they are then termed a