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Nonresponse to treatment for hepatitis C: current management strategies
- Source :
- Drugs. 68(1)
- Publication Year :
- 2007
-
Abstract
- Chronic hepatitis C affects >170 million people worldwide, causing cirrhosis and liver cancer in a sizeable proportion of patients. Substantial progress has been made in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. More than 50% of patients can achieve sustained virological response after 24-48 weeks of interferon and ribavirin combination therapy, making chronic hepatitis C a potentially curable disease. However, a large proportion of patients with chronic hepatitis C do not clear the virus after current standard therapy. Hepatitis C virus develops two pathways to counteract the antiviral effect of interferon. Some chronic hepatitis C patients may have a virus that is more resistant to interferon therapy, while other patients appear to have defective immune responses or poor tolerance or compliance to interferon-based antiviral therapy. The possible strategies to improve antiviral efficiency in these nonresponders are to increase the dosage, prolong the duration of treatment and improve the compliance of patients. A total of 6-15% of prior nonresponders to standard interferon plus ribavirin therapy will respond to re-treatment with peginterferon plus ribavirin, while 32-50% of patients who have relapsed will respond to re-treatment. New small molecules are under development to treat chronic hepatitis C and may be important particularly in the treatment of prior nonresponders to current standard therapy.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Cirrhosis
Combination therapy
Hepatitis C virus
Hepacivirus
medicine.disease_cause
Gastroenterology
Antiviral Agents
Drug Administration Schedule
Polyethylene Glycols
chemistry.chemical_compound
Pharmacotherapy
Interferon
Internal medicine
Drug Resistance, Viral
Ribavirin
medicine
Humans
Pharmacology (medical)
Treatment Failure
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
business.industry
Hepatitis C
Drugs, Investigational
Hepatitis C, Chronic
medicine.disease
chemistry
Immunology
Patient Compliance
Interferons
Liver cancer
business
medicine.drug
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00126667
- Volume :
- 68
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Drugs
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....0f1a7c4a99d9adb3e2eabbfcad45be30