Cancer Treatment Today

Procrit is appropriate in the anemias due to erytrhopoietin underproduction or deficiency. In Hepatitis C it is usually both as well as due to chronic illness. Several studies have evaluated the use of recombinant human erythropoietin alfa (rHuEPO) (Procrit and Epogen) for the treatment of ribavirin/interferon-induced anemia in HCV-infected patients. In a letter to the editor of Hepatology, researchers in France reported the results of a study of

Therapy with interferons have been associated with a greater decrease in absolute neutrophil counts than standard interferons, requiring dose reduction secondary to neutropenia in 18-20% of treated patients. While neutropeniais common, rarely is the neutropenia severe enough to warrant permanent discontinuationof therapy. If the neutrophil count drops below0.75 x 109 / L, the pegylated interferon doseshould be reduced by 50%. If the neutrophil count

Lay Summary: Duration of treatment of Hepatitis C with interferon or interferon/ribavirin is usually 24 weeks and generally not tought to be beneficial beyond 48 weeks. Please consult the references for more specific recommendations. Stephanos J. Hadziyannis, Hoel Sette, Jr., Timothy R. Morgan, Vijayan Balan, Moises Diago, Patrick Marcellin, Giuliano Ramadori, Henry Bodenheimer, Jr., David Bernstein, Mario Rizzetto, Stefan Zeuzem, Paul J. Pockros,