Keio multicenter trial in high-dose interferon-α2b treatment for chronic hepatitis C

The efficacy of two different high-dose treatment of IFN-α2b was evaluated in this study. Serum hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA levels were semi-quantified by simplified reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Seventy-one patients with chronic hepatitis C received 10 million units of IFN-α2b daily for 2 weeks or thrice a week for 24 weeks. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels overall normalized in 78.1% and 51.6% of the cases at the end of the therapy and 6 months after that, respectively. HCV RNA disappeared in 71.9% and 35.7% of the patients at the end of the therapy and 6 months after that, respectively. There was no significant difference between the 2 different regimes. The efficacy of the treatment was fair in cases in which the pretreatment level of the viral amount was low. The results of this study indicate that daily administration of IFN in the first 2 weeks during a 6-month course does not increase the efficacy of the therapy in such a high-dose treatment regime.