Peginterferon alpha-2b and ribavirin for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C in Japanese pediatric and young adult patients: a survey of the Japan Society of Pediatric Hepatology

Abstract

The results showed that the present patients infected with HCV and treated with peginterferon-2b and ribavirin achieved a remarkably high SVR rate. In addition, most of the patients achieved a SVR once they showed a virologic response at week 4. The combination of peginterferon-alpha with ribavirin may be considered as a standard therapy for children and young adults.

Researches on the Pharmacological Effects of Eicosapentaenoic Acid

“…Although combination therapy with ribavirin and pegylated interferon, which is recommended as a standard regimen for pediatric and young adult patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) worldwide [29,30,31,32], high ribavirin doses increase the risk of hemolytic anemia [33]. Suzuki M et al [34] selected 12 CHC patients who received the combination therapy to evaluate the efficacy of EPA on ribavirin-induced hemolytic anemia, and they found that the hemoglobin levels were significantly improved in the EPA group at 8 and 16 weeks, contributing to avoiding ribavirin-related anemia .…”

Chronic hepatitis C virus infection in children and adolescents: Epidemiology, natural history, and assessment of the safety and efficacy of combination therapy

“…A formal paper has not been published yet, but the main results of the study have been presented at the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases 76. Two further studies described small cohorts of children with chronic hepatitis C treated with peginterferon-á-2b and ribavirin 77,78. The first, published by Baker et al, is a retrospective/prospective study reporting observations on 10 adolescents.…”

“…The first, published by Baker et al, is a retrospective/prospective study reporting observations on 10 adolescents. The second is a retrospective, multicenter, collaborative study by the Japan Society of Pediatric Hepatology on 33 children and young adults 78. Two more studies on combined treatment have been published, but were excluded from the analysis performed in this review, in one case because it was not possible to extrapolate the children treated with peginterferon-á-2a and those treated with peginterferon-á-2b79 and the other because the patients enrolled were on treatment at the end of the follow-up 54…”

“…The first inclusion criteria for all the studies was the presence of chronic hepatitis C with detectable serum HCV RNA72–78 independent of HCV genotype and the mode of infection 72–78. In the study by Wirth et al74 published in 2010, in the PEDS-C trial,76 and in the study by Baker et al77 patients were enrolled only if HCV RNA was detected for more than 6 months before treatment.…”

“…In the study by Wirth et al74 published in 2010, patients were excluded if the serum alanine transaminase level was more than 10 times the upper limit of normal within the 6 months before the beginning of the treatment. In the remaining studies, the enrollment was independent of the levels of serum transaminases 72,76–78…”