Reports of New Therapy Eradicating HCV
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Report of 6 Cases of Complete HCV Remission in Prior Non-Responders Treated with Pegylated Interferon Plus Ribavirin Plus Thalidomide
By Ronald Baker, PhD
Excerpt taken from www.hivandhepatitis.com
Although it represents the current standard of care for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, combination therapy with pegylated interferon plus ribavirin does not provide optimal treatment for this debilitating and life-threatening disease, which impacts a significant portion of the world’s population.
The present article reviews a recent Brazilian paper published in Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo. This report describes 6 chronic HCV patients who failed initial combination therapy with pegylated interferon/ribavirin (Peg-IFN/RBV). After the addition of thalidomide to Peg-IFN/RBV therapy, all 6 experienced complete remission of their chronic hepatitis C infection and presented with negative HCV RNA, according to the author of these case reports.
The use of thalidomide in a triple combination regimen with pegylated interferon and ribavirin for the treatment of hepatitis C is described in these Brazilian case reports for the first time in the medical literature.
Source:
M M Caseiro. Treatment of chronic hepatitis C in non-responsive patients with pegylated interferon associated with ribavirin and thalidomide: report of six cases of total remission. Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo 48(2): 109-112. April 2006.
