Interferon therapy for chronic hepatitis C

Interferon alone is currently the treatment of choice for chronic hepatitis C. The optimal treatment regimen continues to be defined and refined by clinical studies. The variability of the response to interferon seems to be influenced by several factors, including liver histology, viral genotype, level of viraemia, number of predominant quasispecies, and perhaps the type of interferon and treatment regimen. It is therefore quite likely that, in the future, treatment regimens will be tailored to the individual patient in order to maximize the likelihood of a beneficial outcome. It is also likely that the increasing availability of sensitive, quantitative, and affordable assays of hepatitis C viral levels will allow physicians to assess treatment response quite differently from the way we do so today. This will change our philosophy such that we will begin to view and treat chronic hepatitis C as an infection, instead of simply as a liver disease.