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New Treatment for Hepatitis C Proves Superior

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infectious disease of the liver and a leading cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer. It is also the primary reason for liver transplants in the United States. According to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is responsible for up to 10,000 deaths per year in the U.S., and that annual rate is projected to increase to 38,000 by the year 2010—surpassing the number of deaths attributed annually to HIV/AIDS. The risk for HCV infection is particularly high for African-American and Mexican-American males between the ages of 20 and 60.

A study conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) has found that the drug peginterferon alfa-2a, marketed under the brand name PEGASYS, outperforms other varieties of interferon in the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

The study, published in the December 7, 2000 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 271 patients at 22 U.S., Canadian and Australian medical centers, including VCU’s Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. This study was unique in that only patients with advanced liver disease, or with advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis, participated in the treatment.

“Hepatitis C patients—both in the early stages of the disease and those with cirrhosis—are in dire need of more effective treatments,” emphasizes Mitchell L. Shiffman, MD, medical director of VCU’s Hepatology-Liver Transplant program and the study’s lead U.S. investigator. “This study clearly demonstrates that PEGASYS is superior to standard forms of interferon in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C.”

Interferon, alone or in combination with an anti-viral drug, is the only effective therapy for hepatitis C. PEGASYS was developed by attaching a non-toxic compound called PEG to the interferon. As a result, the altered interferon drug is not only more effective in the treatment of the hepatitis C virus but also has the ability to last longer in the body and produce fewer side effects.

Thirty percent of the patients with advanced liver disease who were treated with PEGASYS lost all evidence of hepatitis C virus, compared to 6% of patients treated with standard interferon alfa-2a. To be considered virus-free or sustaining a viral clearance, the virus must not return after drug treatments stop. Participants in this study were treated for 48 weeks with PEGASYS and were monitored for another 24 weeks after treatment ended.