Background and aim: In China, chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents a considerable healthcare burden. Although interferon-based therapy has been the standard-of-care for many years, few long-term, real-life studies have assessed interferon-based treatment in China. The objective of CCgenos follow-up study was to analyze long-term treatment patterns and outcomes in a cohort of treatment-naïve, Han ethnic, patients with chronic HCV infection.
Methods: Patients who had participated in the CCgenos cross-sectional study were invited to enter this 5-year follow up. Clinical information and centralized HCV-RNA measures were collected at scheduled study visits every 6 months for untreated patients and every 3 months for treated patients.
Results: Among 512 patients enrolled, 334 (65.2%) received interferon-based treatment and 178 (34.8%) remained untreated over a median of 4.1 (1.2-4.3) years. A total of 82.8% (424/512) of patients had an IL28B CC genotype (GT); 60.7% (311/512) had HCV GT1b infection, including 121 (38.9%) untreated. Most patients with baseline cirrhosis were untreated (26/46, 56.5%). Among patients who completed treatment and 24 weeks of post-treatment follow up, the duration of interferon-based therapy was frequently longer than recommended (52.9% [92/174] of GT1b-infected were treated for > 1 year). Rates of sustained virologic response (SVR24) were 71.1% (226/318) overall; 62.4% (111/178) among patients with HCV GT1b infection; and 42.9% (15/35) among patients with cirrhosis.
Conclusions: There remains a high unmet need for effective HCV treatment in China, evidenced by a high proportion of patients remaining untreated by the current standard-of-care and relatively low SVR24 rates for patients with both GT1b infection and cirrhosis.
Keywords: HCV; SVR; cirrhosis; genotype 1b; treatment pattern.
© 2016 The Authors Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology published by Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.