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Only about half of all patients who undergo treatment for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection respond to combination therapy with peginterferon and ribavirin. Several factors predict response, including baseline viral load, HCV genotype, degree of fibrosis, and race or ethnicity. In the present study, researchers have identified a genetic polymorphism that helps explain why response rates in the U.S. tend to be higher among whites than blacks.
Genotyping was performed in 1137 individuals who were chronically infected with HCV genotype 1 and had participated in prospective studies of peginterferon and ribavirin. A polymorphism on chromosome 19, rs12979860, was found to be strongly associated with sustained virologic response (SVR), both…