Nonresponse to interferon monotherapy in HCV-related chronic hepatitis: Results of retreatment and prognostic factors

Abstract

At present two of the most relevant problems of the therapy of HCV-related chronic active hepatitis are the retreatment of nonresponders to interferon-α (IFN-α) and the definition of a prognostic index of response. We treated 44 patients who previously were nonresponders to IFN-α alone with IFN-α plus ribavirin for 12 months. Among the tests performed, we included the serum level of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) at the beginning of the trial and at 3 months thereafter. We obtained 56.81% end of treatment responses and 47.72% sustained responses. A decrease of at least 10% of the sICAM-1 serum level during the first 3 months of treatment strongly correlated to the results of therapy while the usual important prognostic factors (HCV genotype and viral load) did not show this relation.