[Antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C: current status and perspectives]

Abstract

Antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C has advanced dramatically since the discovery of the hepatitis C virus and the introduction of interferon in early 1990's. An initial treatment regimen, 24 weeks of interferon monotherapy, achieved sustained virologic response, which is formally defined at 24 weeks after completion of the treatment, only for 5% of patients with genotype 1 high-viral load belonging to a difficult-to-treat group. Current standard therapy is a combination of pegylated interferon and ribavirin. Forty eight weeks of the combination therapy achieves successful viral eradication for 40-50% of genotype 1 patients while 24 weeks of that do so for 80% of genotype 2 patients. Early viral kinetics after the initiation of therapy is a useful predictor of the sustained virologic response for genotype 1 patients, serving as recommendation criteria for extended duration, 72 weeks, of combination therapy. New types of anti-HCV agents such as HCV protease and polymerase inhibitors are needed for patients that do not respond to combination therapy. Hepatitis C is not just an infectious disease, but a potentially serious liver disease progressing to end-stage liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Antiviral therapy should be considered from the view point of suppressing liver-related death in hepatitis C virus-infected patients.