Efficacy of pegylated interferon and ribavirin combination therapy for patients with hepatitis C virus infection after curative resection or ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma--A retrospective multicenter study
Abstract
The use of pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN) plus ribavirin combination therapy for chronic hepatitis C patients who received curative treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma is controversial. This study tried to clarify this. Ninety-nine chronic hepatitis C patients who received curative resection or radiofrequency ablation for primary hepatocellular carcinoma, met the Milan criteria and were treated with Peg-IFN plus ribavirin therapy were enrolled (75 males, 24 females; mean age, 65.0 ± 5.9 years; 79 HCV genotype 1, 20 genotype 2). Among them, 40 patients who had received curative treatment for a single carcinoma were analyzed for recurrence (observation period: 27.6 ± 18.1 months). The factors associated with recurrence were examined using a log-rank test and a Cox proportional-hazards model. The discontinuation rate of the Peg-IFN plus ribavirin combination therapy was 25% (25/99). Among the patients who completed the therapy, the sustained virologic response rates were 35% for the genotype 1 patients and 56% for the genotype 2 patients. The cumulative incidence rates of recurrence were 10.0% at 1 year and 40.8% at 3 years. On multivariate analysis, a virologic response and platelet counts served as independent factors of recu...Continue Reading
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