Background: In HIV-HCV co-infected patients who failed to achieve sustained viral response (SVR) with PEG-IFN + RBV, data on SVR rate after re-treatment with Peginterferon (PEG-IFN) + ribavirin (RBV) are scarce.
Aim: The aim of this study was to identify factors predictive of SVR after re-treatment in a large cohort of HIV/HCV co-infected patients - the ANRS-CO7 Ribavic cohort study, which is a long term follow-up study of patients who were included in the randomized controlled trial ANRS-HC02 RIBAVIC.
Results: Among the 176 patients who did not achieve a SVR during the RIBAVIC trial, sixty-six patients (38%) experienced a re-treatment with PEG-IFN + RBV. The SVR observed to the second course of HCV treatment was 44% overall, i.e. 93% in patients who were relapsers and 29% in nonresponders. In the nonresponders subgroup, the SVR rate was 42% in patients with genotype 2-3 and 26% in patients with genotype 1-4. In multivariate analysis, age ≤ 40 years (OR 12.4 95% CI 1.9-171, p = 0.003), genotype 2-3 versus 1-4 (OR 8.1 95% CI 8.1 1.2-97, p = 0.002) and relapser status at first treatment (OR 32.9 95% CI 3.2-278, p < 0.0001) were significantly associated with SVR.
Conclusion: Our findings strongly suggest that patients who relapse after first treatment, particularly those infected with HCV genotype 2-3, or living in countries with no access to the direct acting antiviral drugs for HCV, could be successfully re-treated with standard bi-therapy of PEG-IFN + RBV regimen.
Keywords: HCV re-treatment; HCV relapsers; HCV sustained viral response; HIV/HCV coinfection; Peginterferon alfa plus ribavirin.
Copyright © 2013 The British Infection Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.