Clinical studies in relation to the clinical practice in chronic hepatitis C

Abstract:

In early 2014, significant progress in the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C was achieved with the approval of the first therapeutic protocols without interferon. In randomized clinical trials in which two or more antiviral drugs with direct antiviral action were administered, a high rate of permanent cure was achieved along with excellent safety and tolerability. These new classes of drugs can be administered in patients who were hard to cure pursuant to older protocols. In early 2015, the results of the first real-life research which included a large number of patients almost unequivocally confirmed the results of the drugs’ registration studies, confirming the high efficiency and safety of new therapies. However, both the randomized clinical and real-life research found that there are still several groups of patients that cannot be satisfactorily treated. The next wave of direct antivirals (third generation) is expected, which according to preliminary results of the third phase of randomized clinical trials, would also cure the hard to treat patients.

Key words:
chronic hepatitis C; cirrhosis; direct-acting antivirals; fibrosis; genotype