Breakthrough during recombinant interferon alfa therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection: Prevalence, etiology, and management

✍ Scribed by Luigi Roffi; Guido Colloredo Mels; Guido Antonelli; Giorgio Bellati; Fabio Panizzuti; Alberto Piperno; Massimo Pozzi; Davide Ravizza; Giovanni Angeli; Ferdinando Dianzani; Giuseppe Mancia

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 567 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.1840210307

✦ Synopsis

Recombinant interferon alfa (r-IFNa2) has been shown to normalize the aminotransferase levels in approximately 50% of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV). Few patients experience a relapse during the treatment, in spite of a complete initial response (breakthrough). We studied 191 HCV Ab-positive patients with histologically proven chronic hepatitis. All of them were treated with r-IFNa2 (3 MU three times a week). A complete response was seen in 54.4%. However, 12 of 104 responders experienced a breakthrough. At the time of breakthrough, neutralizing IFN antibodies were positive in 6 of 12 patients. Binding IFN antibodies were positive in all of these 12 patients. Continued treatment with r-IFNa2, even at higher doses, did not restore the previous response in any patient. All of them were then switched to natural lymphoblastoid IFN, and this rapidly restored a complete response in all of the patients.