Peginterferon Is Effective for Some Patients with Refractory HBV Infections

Retreatment was successful in as many as 30% of chronically infected HBeAg-positive patients who had not responded to prior therapy with IFN or lamivudine.

A growing proportion of patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection do not respond to initial treatment with interferon or lamivudine. In this randomized trial, investigators assigned 76 chronically infected, hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive patients to receive peginterferon-α-2b (Peg-IFN; 100 μg weekly), with or without lamivudine (100 mg daily), for 52 weeks. Thirty-seven patients had been nonresponsive to previous IFN therapy (median, 24 weeks), 17 had been nonresponsive to previous lamivudine therapy (median, 54 weeks), and 22 had been nonresponsive to both. Eleven patients had the YMDD mutation at the start of retreatment. The interval from initial treatment to retreatment ranged from 26 to 576 weeks. Follow-up lasted 26 week…

Reviewing Author

Atif Zaman, MD, MPH

Peginterferon Is Effective for Some Patients with Refractory HBV Infections

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Reviewing Author