Predictive factors in the response to interferon therapy in chronic hepatitis C

Factors predicting the efficacy of interferon therapy were statistically analyzed on 111 patients with chronic hepatitis C. Of the treated patients (total doses of interferon; 96–468 MU), 35 (31.5%) had a long-term remission. On multivariate analysis, hepatitis C virus genotype (p<0.0001), histological diagnosis (p<0.05), fibrosis score of histological activity index (p<0.01) and source of infection (p<0.05) were found useful for predicting the response to interferon therapy. Our findings suggest that the outcome of interferon therapy can be predicted to some degree from pretreatment data, and that a new therapeutic strategy is necessary for the group of patients who are predicted to be nonresponders.