Long-Term Effects of Antiviral Therapy in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C

Table 2

Randomized, controlled trials to evaluate the effect of maintenance therapy on the progression of HCV-related chronic liver diseases.

Author (study name) [reference number]	Year	Patients	Patient no. (treatment/ control)	IFN regimen	Treatment duration (year)	Control	Preventing effect
							Liver histology		Disease progression	HCC incidence	Compensation-free survival
							Inflammation	Fibrosis
Shiffman et al. [20]	1999	Chronic hepatitis (a)	27/26	IFN alfa-2b 3 MU 3 times/wk	2	observation	Yes	Yes	N/A (b)	N/A	N/A
Fartoux et al. [21]	2007	Cirrhosis (c)	51/51	IFN alfa-2a; 3 MU 3 times/wk	2	observation	N/A	N/A	No	No	No
Di Bisceglie et al. [22] (HALT-C)	2008	Bridging fibrosis or cirrhosis (d)	517/533	PegIFN alfa-2a 90 𝜇g/wk	3.5	observation	Yes	No	No	No	No
Cardenas et al. [23] and Afdhal et al. [24] (COPILOT)	2009 (e)	Advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis (f)	282/266	PegIFN alfa-2b 0.5 μg/kg/wk	4	Colchicines 1.2 mg/day	N/A	N/A	Yes (reduced variceal bleeding)	No	No (g)
Bruix et al. (EPIC^3) [25]	2009 (e)	Cirrhosis (h)	631 (total)	PegIFN alfa-2b 0.5 μg/kg/wk	3	observation	N/A	N/A	No (i)	N/A	No

(a) The patients of both arms received 6-month course of IFN monotherapy before randomization.
(b) N/A = not available.
(c) 36% and 44% of patients previously failed to respond to IFN monotherapy and IFN/ribavirin combination therapy, respectively.
(d) Patients did not have response to 6- or 12-month lead-in phase peginterferon plus ribavirin therapy.
(e) Only abstract is available.
(f) Patients did not have response to the previous therapy.
(g) Event-free survival was better only in patients with portal hypertension.
(h) Patients did not have response to the previous interferon plus ribavirin therapy.
(i) Clinical events were observed less frequently in the treated group in patients with baseline esophageal varices.