Analysis of the therapeutic predictive markers for chronic hepatitis C with a focus on IL28B polymorphism

Introduction: Up until recently there was no clear explanation why patients with chronic hepatitis C infection have different levels of spontaneous viral clearance and resistance to the same treatment. Most importantly, it was unknown why only a proportion of patients achieve sustained viral response with the current goldstandard combination therapy of ribavirine and pegilated interferon alfa2a or alfa2b, and why patients with a Caucasian origin have significantly better response rates than patients with an African-American origin. As part of the continuous research to identify both viral and patient factors tha…