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Hepatitis

Treatment of chronic hepatitis C—how much interferon is enough?

A multicenter, randomized, controlled trial of 610 patients with chronic hepatitis C infected with HCV genotype 1 or 4 compared 48 weeks of standard of care therapy (PEG-IFN and ribavirin) with 12 weeks of induction therapy with high-dose PEG-IFN followed by 36 weeks of standard of care treatment. High-dose PEG-IFN induction therapy did not enhance early or sustained virologic response rates compared with standard of care therapy.

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Figure 1: Phases of antiviral treatment of chronic hepatitis C.

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P. Ferenci is a consultant for Roche, Novartis and Vertex. He is on the speakers bureau for Roche and Vertex, and receives grant/research support from Roche.

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Ferenci, P. Treatment of chronic hepatitis C—how much interferon is enough?. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 7, 191–193 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2010.40

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