Comparative study concerning the efficacy of Peg-IFN alpha-2a versus Peg-IFN alpha-2b on the early virological response (EVR) in patients with chronic viral C hepatitis.

Background: Pegylated interferons (Peg-IFNs) represent, in association with Ribavirin, the first line of treatment in chronic C viral hepatitis. The AIM of our paper was to compare the efficacy of Peg-IFN alpha 2a (Pegasys) and Peg-IFN alpha 2b (PegIntron) in a group of patients from the Department of Gastroenterology in Timisoara.
Material and Method: 116 patients with chronic C viral hepatitis were treated. The patients were randomized in chronological order (1:1), so that 58 patients were treated with Peg-IFN alpha 2a 180 microg/kg/week + Ribavirin (group 1) and 58 were treated with Peg-IFN alpha 2b 1.5 microg/kg/week + Ribavirin (group 2). Ribavirin was administered in the recommended doses, according to weight. The mean age was: group 1 -- 49.3 years, group 2 -- 50.9 years (p=0.37). Group 1 consisted of 37 women and 21 men and group 2 of 44 women 14 men (p=0.22). In group 1, 48 patients were naïve (N1), 7 were relapsers after previous treatment (RL1) and 3 non-responders to previous treatment (NR1). In group 2, 33 patients were naive (N2), 18 relapsers (RL2) and 7 non-responders (NR2). After 12 weeks of treatment we evaluated the early virological response (EVR), defined as a drop in the viral load with 2 logs compared to the baseline viremia.
Results: The following EVR rates were found: in group 1 (Pegasys) - 82.2% (48/58); in group 2 (PegIntron) -- 67.2% (39/58) (p=0.08). There were also no significant statistical differences between the response rates in the subgroups: naïve patients [89.6% vs. 75.2%, p = 0.61], relapsers [57.1% vs. 66.6%, p = 0.67] and non responders [33.3% vs. 28.6%, p = 1].
Conclusion: Our head to head comparative study showed that there are no statistically significant differences in the EVR between the patients treated with Peg-IFN alpha 2a and Peg-IFN alpha 2b.