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PEDS C: Patients Maintained Long-Term SVR after Pegylated Interferon, Ribavirin
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Children with chronic hepatitis C virus who achieved sustained virologic response with pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy maintained the response during long-term follow-up, researchers reported at Digestive Disease Week.
Kathleen B. Schwarz, MD, professor of pediatrics and director of the Pediatric Liver Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and colleagues conducted long-term follow-up of 5 to 6 years on 38 patients who participated in phase 2 or 3 of the PEDS C trial.
Kathleen B. Schwarz
The initial trial included 114 children with chronic HCV who were treated with weekly subcutaneous pegylated interferon alfa-2a at 180 mcg/1.73 m2 with or without ribavirin at 15 mg/kg/day or placebo for 48 weeks. Patients who received pegylated interferon/placebo and did not respond at 24 weeks crossed over to pegylated interferon/ribavirin for 24 to 48 weeks.
During the trial, overall SVR was 53% with pegylated interferon/ribavirin; 75 patients were nonresponders, while 39 responded to treatment.
Of the 38 patients who agreed to participate in the long-term follow-up, 21 achieved SVR during the PEDS C trial, while the others relapsed or were nonresponders. All of the patients who achieved SVR during long-term follow-up maintained the response and did not show signs of HCV RNA between 4.4 years and 7 years after initially reaching SVR.
The SVR achieved during treatment with pegylated interferon plus RBV in children with chronic HCV has excellent long-term durability, Schwarz said.