Intramuscular Beta Interferon For Chronic Hepatitis C: Is It Worth Trying?

Background and Aims. The intramuscular use of beta interferon has been tested in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C, bur it did not pi-eve effective when the schedule was 3 million units three times a week for six months. Since the lack of effectiveness of this treatment might be due to the low bioavailability of beta interferon when administer-ed intramuscularly, we tested a higher dosage of the drug: 6 Inillion units three times a week for twelve months.Patients and Methods, Ninety-two patients were randomized to receive, intramuscularly, either 3 or 6 million units of natural human fibroblast beta interferon three times a week for 12 months.Results, The short-term biochemical response was significantly more frequent in the group of patients who received the higher dosage of beta interferon: 21% vs 4.5% (p<0.05). Nevertheless, a sustained biochemical response was obtained in only one patient (2%), who received the higher dosage of beta interferon.Conclusions. Since the better short-term reponse rate was obtained with the higher dosage of beta interferon, a further increase in the dosage might improve the short-term and, possibly, the long-term response to treatment. However due to the high cost of beta interferon, this high-dose schedule would probably not be cost-effective in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C.