An emerging role for interferon in haemophiliacs with chronic hepatitis C?

The combination of interferon (IFN) and ribavirin is the current gold stand ard for treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with sustain ed remission rates of 35-40% being achieved in haemophilic patients. A simi lar beneficial effect of this combined therapy has been suggested even for patients with compensated liver cirrhosis and some authors have reported a possible role for IFN and ribavirin in the prevention or delay in the devel opment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a well known complication of HCV infection in haemophiliacs. The absence, due to design difficulties, of def inite randomized controlled clinical trials remains a handicap for the rout ine use of specific therapy of HCV infected patients with the aim of preven ting HCC. A discussion of these important issues has been performed in this paper.