Combination of sofosbuvir, pegylated-interferon and ribavirin for treatment of hepatitis C virus genotype 1 infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important cause of chronic liver disease which has been affected 3% of world’s population. Some studies have shown that adding Sofosbuvir (SOF), an HCV polymerase inhibitor to the conventional therapy of Pegylated-interferon (PegIFN) plus Ribavirin (RBV) can increase the rate of sustained virologic response (SVR) among HCV-infected patients. This study was conducted to determine the effect of combination therapy with PegIFN and RBV plus SOF for chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 infection using systematic review with meta-analysis. METHODS: In this study, electronic databases including PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and Web of Science were comprehensively searched using appropriate strategies containing all related keywords of “hepatitis C”, “PegIFN”, “RBV” and “SOF”. Studies assessed the efficacy of combination therapy with PegIFN and RBV plus SOF for chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 infection were included in the meta-analysis. RESULTS: After screening of 757 records, we included five articles with total sample size of 411 to the meta-analysis. Based on the fixed-effect model (χ (2) = 5.29, P = 0.26 and I(2) = 24.4%), pooled SVR rate for treatment regimen of PegIFN and RBV plus SOF was calculated as 88.54% (95% CI = 85.77%–91.32%). CONCLUSIONS: Combination therapy with PegIFN and RBV plus SOF results in high treatment response in patients with HCV genotype 1 infection. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40199-017-0177-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.