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Studies of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection treatment have shown that response to interferon-based therapy is lower in postmenopausal women than in premenopausal women. This could be caused by declining estrogen levels in menopause. To test that hypothesis, investigators evaluated whether the addition of raloxifene hydrochloride (RLX) — a selective estrogen receptor modulator — improved the efficacy of standard therapy with peginterferon and ribavirin in this group.
Investigators randomized 123 postmenopausal Japanese women aged 50 to 73 years with genotype 1b HCV infection to receive 60 mg of RLX daily plus standard therapy with 180 µg of peginterferon weekly and 600 to 1000 µg of ribavirin daily or standard therapy only for 48 weeks. The …