Interferon-Based Therapy Decreases Risks of Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Complications of Cirrhosis in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients

BACKGROUND: Interferon-based therapy (IBT) has been the standard of care for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. However, conflicting results exist regarding the effects of IBT on risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cirrhosis-associated complications, and most included highly selected patients. METHODS: This 8-year cohort study was based on the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID 2000) consisting of 1,000,000 beneficiaries randomly selected from all Taiwan National Health Insurance enrollees in 2000 (>23.7 million). Patients with newly detected HCV infections (n = 11,264) were classified based on treatment and clinical outcomes. IBTs were defined as regimens that included interferon- alfa, pegylated interferon- alfa -2a, or pegylated interferon- alfa -2b for at least 3 months. The Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) and associated confidence interval (CI) of HCC and cirrhosis-associated complications for IBT. RESULTS: The 8-year incidence rate for HCC was 3.9% among patients who received IBT and 5.6% among those who did not. The HCC-free survival rate was significantly higher among patients receiving IBT during the 8-year period than their counterpart (adjusted HR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.31–0.81; P = .004). Similarly, the event-free survival rates for esophageal variceal bleeding (adjusted HR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.22–0.91; P = .026), hepatic encephalopathy (adjusted HR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.21–0.69; P = .001), ascites (adjusted HR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.14–0.57; P<.001), and cirrhosis (adjusted HR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.44–0.91; P = .013) were significantly higher among patients who received IBT than those who did not, after adjustment for associated factors. CONCLUSION: Treatment with interferon may reduce the 8-year risk of HCC and cirrhosis-associated complications in patients with chronic HCV infection.