Failed triple therapy in a treatment-experienced patient with genotype 6 hepatitis C infection

Purpose The first published report of the use of triple therapy in a patient with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 6 infection—a treatment that was prescribed due to incorrect HCV genotyping and which ultimately failed—is presented. Summary A 70-year-old male U.S. resident of Vietnamese descent requested treatment for chronic HCV infection acquired decades earlier. He reported experiencing hepatitis C treatment failures twice before—13 years prior (interferon alfa monotherapy for six months) and 7 years prior (standard dual therapy with pegylated interferon alfa-2b and ribavirin for nine months). Initial viral genotyping indicated infection with HCV genotypes 1a and 6c (a form of mixed HCV disease amenable to triple therapy), and treatment with pegylated interferon alfa-2a, ribavirin, and boceprevir was initiated. By week 8 of triple therapy, the patient’s viral load had decreased from 15,700,000 (7.20 log) to 462,882 (5.67 log) IU/mL, but the viral load subsequently rebounded to baseline levels, and treatment was discontinued at week 16. When repeat HCV genotyping was performed, it was discovered that initial genotyping was incorrect and that the man’s infection involved not mixed genotypes but only genotype 6; he was not an appropriate candidate for triple therapy. The case emphasizes the need for clinicians to be cognizant of potential HCV genotyping errors, particularly with regard to patients of Southeast Asian descent. Conclusion Three courses of interferon-based treatment, including triple therapy with boceprevir, failed to produce a sustained therapeutic response in a 70-year-old ethnic Vietnamese man with genotype 6 HCV infection.