News Release

Successful short-term peg-interferon monotherapy for chronic hepatitis

Peer-Reviewed Publication

World Journal of Gastroenterology

The efficacy of interferon (IFN) therapy depends on the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype, pretreatment viral load and early viral kinetics. Thus, IFN therapy must be individualized and optimized according to the virological and clinical status of each patient.

A research article to be published on March 28, 2010 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. Dr. Masumoto and his colleagues at Iizuka Hospital proposed the new concept of early viral kinetics in peg-interferon (PEG-IFN) therapy. They defined the "immediate virological response (IVR)" as the loss of serum HCV RNA 7 days after the first administration of PEG-IFN, and scheduled a 12-week treatment course of PEG-IFN for 38 patients who had low pretreatment HCV RNA load and exhibited IVR. As a result, 35 patients (92.1%) achieved sustained virological response (SVR); the elimination of HCV.

Establishing the minimum and yet sufficient IFN therapy period is essential in terms of financial efficiency and for reducing the risk of adverse events. The results of this study provide an important suggestion which will allow future investigations to optimize the treatment regimen of IFN therapy for chronic hepatitis C, especially for the patients who exhibit fast virological response to IFN. IVR, the new concept proposed in this study, should be a simple and useful indicator of early viral kinetics to predict the high probability of SVR.

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Reference: Yada M, Masumoto A, Yamashita N, Motomura K, Koyanagi T, Sakamoto S. Immediate virological response predicts the success of short-term peg-interferon monotherapy for chronic hepatitis C. World J Gastroenterol 2010; 16(12): 1506-1511 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v16/i12/1506.htm

Correspondence to: Dr. Akihide Masumoto, Department of Hepatology, Iizuka Hospital, 3-83 Yoshio-machi, Iizuka, Fukuoka 820-8505, Japan. amasumotoh1@aih-net.com Telephone: +81-948-223800 Fax: +81-948-298747

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

About The WJG Press

The WJG Press mainly publishes World Journal of Gastroenterology.


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