Short-term interferon therapy for chronic hepatitis C patients with low viral load

Background/Aims: To evaluate the usefulness of high-dose short-term interferon therapy prospectively in 32 chronic hepatitis C patients with a low viral load showing the rapid disappearance of hepatitis C virus RNA after the start of interferon therapy. Methodology: Each patient was confirmed with a low hepatitis C virus RNA level less than 1.0Meq/mL before the start of interferon therapy regardless of hepatitis C virus genotypes. High-dose short-term interferon therapy was defined as administration of natural interferon alpha 10MU/day for 14 weeks (daily for 4 weeks then three times a week for 10 weeks). This course of treatment was carried out only in cases with the rapid disappearance of hepatitis C virus RNA at 2 weeks after the start of interferon. Results: Sustained virological response was observed in 30 of 32 patients (93.8%) who received high-dose short-term interferon therapy. One patient who received 24 weeks interferon administration relapsed and became a non-responder. One patient refused to continue this therapy. Conclusions: High-dose short-term interferon therapy might be useful when combining the selection of patients according to pretreatment hepatitis C virus RNA levels and testing virus presence at an early point after the start of interferon therapy.