Therapeutic response in children with post malignancy chronic HCV genotype 1 infection

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess and compare the efficacy of interferon (INF) and its combination with ribavirin (RBV) treatment in children infected with Genotype-1b HCV. Material and Method: Twenty-seven children who had malignancy in remission for at least 12 months and were followed up for chronic hepatitis C infection between the years 1998 and 2000 were included. Patients diagnosed after the year 2000 were given INF-alpha 2b plus RBV in oral form (Group 1) and patients diagnosed before the year 2000 were given INF-alpha (Group 2) for twelve months respectively. Results: In Group 1, end of treatment response and sustained virological response (SVR) rates were 75% and 56%, respectively. In Group 2, the rates were 27.2% and 18.18%, respectively. The difference in the end of treatment response rates between the two groups were statistically significant (p<0.05), whereas the difference in SVR rates was insignificant (p>0.05). Duration of infection before treatment in Group 1 was significantly lower than in Group 2 (p=0.001). Conclusions: Better response rates were observed with combined therapy as compared to mono therapy. Higher response rate of combination therapy may be related to shorter initial infection period. (Turk Arch Ped 2009; 44: 68-72)