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Rebecca Voelker

JAMA. 1999;282:519.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A European research group has tried to answer a complex question: how long should patients with chronic hepatitis B infection receive therapy with interferon alfa (INF-)?

In a study in last month's Hepatology, the researchers reported that doubling the treatment time with INF- from 16 to 32 weeks produces a stronger antiviral response in some patients. The researchers, from 16 hepatologic centers throughout Europe, initially enrolled 162 patients with chronic hepatitis B in the study. After 16 weeks of standard therapy with INF-, only 17% were hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) negative. Next, the researchers randomized 118 patients who were still HBeAg positive: 57 received no further INF- treatment and 61 received an additional 16 weeks of therapy.

After randomization, 12% of the 57 patients who received standard treatment were HBeAg negative during follow-up compared with 28% of patients in the prolonged therapy group. Adverse . . . [Full Text of this Article]