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. Issue 7 (13th March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Harada, Naoki; Hiramatsu, Naoki; Oze, Tsugiko; Tatsumi, Tomohide; Hayashi, Norio; Takehara, Tetsuo
• Is Part Of: Journal of medical virology. Volume 87:Issue 7(2015:Jul.)
• Page Start: 1199
• Page End: 1206
• Publication Date: 2015-03-13
• Subjects: Virology -- Periodicals; 616
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.24173
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0146-6615

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="jmv24173-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <p>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 recurrence (sustained virologic response, hazard ratio = 0.190, <italic>P</italic> = 0.029; platelet counts <12 × 10<sup>4</sup>/mm<sup>3</sup>, hazard ratio = 3.19, <italic>P</italic> = 0.019). It is concluded that patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection after curative treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma can be candidates for anti‐viral therapy to reduce the recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma, especially patients with low platelet counts. <bold><italic>J. Med. Virol. 87:1199–1206, 2015</italic>.</bold> © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.</p> </sec> </abstract>