Article    Table of Contents                    Full Text of this article    PDF of this article (PDFs free after 6 months)    Figures/Tables List    Related articles in Annals  Services    Send comment/rapid response letter    Notify a friend about this article    Alert me when this article is cited    Add to Personal Archive    Download to Citation Manager    ACP Search    Get Permissions  Google Scholar    Search for Related Content  Social Bookmarking

What's this?

PubMed

Articles in PubMed by Author:    Zeuzem, S.    Related Articles in PubMed    PubMed Citation    PubMed

REVIEW

Heterogeneous Virologic Response Rates to Interferon-Based Therapy in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C: Who Responds Less Well?

Stefan Zeuzem, MD

2 March 2004 | Volume 140 Issue 5 | Pages 370-381

The introduction of new agents and regimens for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C, such as pegylated interferons and combination therapy with ribavirin, has resulted in substantial improvements in sustained virologic response rates. However, treatment remains a challenge, particularly for certain patient populations, because several virus-related and patient-related factors are associated with a lower virologic response to therapy. Hepatitis C virus genotype 1 and a high baseline viral load are the major viral factors associated with lower response. Patient-related factors include previous relapse or nonresponse to treatment, the presence of cirrhosis, African-American ethnicity, older age, contraindications to treatment, and obesity. This article reviews the data on interferon-based therapies among patients with lower chances for sustained virologic response and discusses the potential of the new pegylated interferons.

Author and Article Information

From Saarland University Hospital, Homburg/Saar, Germany.

Acknowledgments: The author thanks Karen Schneider and Michael von Wagner, MD, for administrative and research assistance with this manuscript.

Grant Support: By the Commission of the European Communities, Specific Research and Technological Development Program Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources (grants QLK2-CT-2000-00836 and QLK2-CT-2002-00954) and by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung Program Kompetenznetz Hepatitis (grants 01KI0102 7 and 12.2).

Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest:Consultancies, Honoraria, and Grants received: Hoffmann La-Roche, Schering-Plough, Yamanouchi. Dr. Zeuzem has served as a member of international advisory boards and speakers' bureau and as a clinical investigator for Hoffmann La-Roche, Schering Plough, and Yamanouchi.

Requests for Single Reprints: Stefan Zeuzem, MD, Department of Internal Medicine II, Saarland University Hospital, Kirrberger Strasse, 66421 Homburg/Saar, Germany; e-mail, Zeuzem{at}uniklinik-saarland.de.

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Reddit

Technorati

Twitter

Related articles in Annals:

Articles
Peginterferon-2a and Ribavirin Combination Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis C: A Randomized Study of Treatment Duration and Ribavirin Dose
Stephanos J. Hadziyannis, Hoel Sette, Jr., Timothy R. Morgan, Vijayan Balan, Moises Diago, Patrick Marcellin, Giuliano Ramadori, Henry Bodenheimer, Jr., David Bernstein, Mario Rizzetto, Stefan Zeuzem, Paul J. Pockros, Amy Lin, Andrew M. Ackrill, AND for the PEGASYS International Study Group*

Annals 2004 140: 346-355. [ABSTRACT][SUMMARY][Full Text]  

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. G. Murphy, B. Willems, M. Deschenes, N. Hilzenrat, R. Mousseau, and S. Sabbah Use of Sequence Analysis of the NS5B Region for Routine Genotyping of Hepatitis C Virus with Reference to C/E1 and 5' Untranslated Region Sequences J. Clin. Microbiol., April 1, 2007; 45(4): 1102 - 1112. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M Sherman, E M Yoshida, M Deschenes, M Krajden, V G Bain, K Peltekian, F Anderson, K Kaita, S Simonyi, R Balshaw, et al. Peginterferon alfa-2a (40KD) plus ribavirin in chronic hepatitis C patients who failed previous interferon therapy Gut, November 1, 2006; 55(11): 1631 - 1638. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. Wrobel, M. Torres-Puente, N. Jimenez, M. A. Bracho, I. Garcia-Robles, A. Moya, and F. Gonzalez-Candelas Analysis of the Overdispersed Clock in the Short-Term Evolution of Hepatitis C Virus: Using the E1/E2 Gene Sequences to Infer Infection Dates in a Single Source Outbreak Mol. Biol. Evol., June 1, 2006; 23(6): 1242 - 1253. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. A Hughes and S. D Shafran Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Management: 2000-2005 Update Ann. Pharmacother., January 1, 2006; 40(1): 74 - 82. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				V. Alfonso, V. A. Mbayed, S. Sookoian, and R. H. Campos Intra-host evolutionary dynamics of hepatitis C virus E2 in treated patients J. Gen. Virol., October 1, 2005; 86(10): 2781 - 2786. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. C. Abbott, K. L. Lentine, J. R. Bucci, L. Y. Agodoa, J. M. Koff, K. C. Holtzmuller, and M. A. Schnitzler Impact of Diabetes and Hepatitis after Kidney Transplantation on Patients Who Are Affected by Hepatitis C Virus J. Am. Soc. Nephrol., December 1, 2004; 15(12): 3166 - 3174. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. Simmonds Genetic diversity and evolution of hepatitis C virus - 15 years on J. Gen. Virol., November 1, 2004; 85(11): 3173 - 3188. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]