Early Prediction of Successful Treatment for Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Taiwan

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global health problem, which may lead to chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, hepatic decompensation and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). [1,2] 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%. [3-5] In contrast, genotype 1 Taiwanese patients have superior SVR rates that those in Western countries. [6,7] 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, [8,9] 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. [10-14] Early viral kinetics shown to have favorable SVR rates, which make shorter treatment duration possible. [15-18] However, different viral kinetics were found through ethnicity. [19-23] 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. [24] 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.