Current therapy for chronic hepatitis C

Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is common in the United States with an estimated prevalence of 2.7 million persons. Fortunately, the incidence of new infections has markedly declined in recent years and the natural history of chronic hepatitis usually only results in significant progression after several decades of infection. However, the majority of chronically infected patients acquired their infections more than 20 years ago; these patients with long-standing chronic hepatitis are now presenting in increasing numbers with decompensated cirrhosis and the need for liver transplantation. Cirrhosis caused by chronic hepatitis C is now the most common indication for liver transplantation. Interferon monotherapy became clinically available 10 years ago but resulted in sustained improvement in liver disease and durable loss of detectable virus in fewer than 10% of treated patients. The recent use of the combination of interferon with the nucleoside analogue ribavirin for 6-12 months results in a sustained virological response in 30%-40% of previously untreated patients. The response to this combination therapy is also excellent in patients who had initially responded to interferon monotherapy and later relapsed. Furthermore, some recent studies suggest that a small proportion of patients who failed to respond to a prior course of interferon (primarily noncirrhotic patients with low levels of virus and genotypes other than 1) may also benefit from retreatment with this combination.