Advances in therapy for chronic hepatitis C.

Major advances in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C have been made during the last decade. The use of PEG-IFN in combination with ribavirin undoubtedly will become the new standard of care for patients with chronic hepatitis C. For the first time there will soon be a choice of medications for which long-term benefit will be the rule rather than the exception, as sustained virologic response rates rise above 50%. As the data mature from clinical trials with these new agents, clinicians will be able to refine and expand the indications for their use, hone the predictors of sustained response, and develop new paradigms to optimize treatment for chronic hepatitis C.