Abstract

Background: Most thalassemic patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection do not respond to therapy with pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) due to hepatic siderosis and RBV dose reduction caused by RBV-induced anemia. Objectives: In the present study, we recruited HCV genotype 1-infected thalassemic patients who had relapsed after a 48-week treatment with Peg-IFN plus RBV in order to evaluate the efficacy of a 72-week regimen of Peg-IFN plus RBV. Patients and Methods: In this retrospective study, 23 thalassemic patients with HCV genotype 1 infection who had prior relapse after treatment with Peg-IFN and RBV for 48 weeks were consecutively enrolled in this study for evaluation of the efficacy of a 72-week treatment regimen. Results: For the 21 included cases, mean age was 29.7 years; 81 were men and 28.6 had cirrhosis. At the end of the treatment, nine (42.9) patients had an undetectable level of HCV RNA in their sera. However, six months after treatment completion four of these patients relapsed and a sustained virological response (SVR) was found in five (23.8) patients. Undetectable HCV RNA level at week 4 (P = 0.03) and undetectable HCV RNA level at week 12 (P < 0.01) were found to be predictors of SVR. There was an average 47.9 increase in blood transfusion during therapy and treatment was discontinued for 12 (57.1) patients prematurely. Conclusions: The present study suggests that thalassemic patients with chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 infection who did not achieve SVR after a course of therapy with Peg-IFN and RBV may benefit from being retreated with a 72-week regimen.