Showing papers by "Flavia Bortolotti published in 2010"
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Witten/Herdecke University1, Mount Sinai Hospital2, Children's Medical Center of Dallas3, University of Paris4, University of Mainz5, New York University6, Children's Memorial Hospital7, University of Massachusetts Medical School8, Boston Children's Hospital9, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology10, Schering-Plough11
TL;DR: Therapy with PEG-IFN alfa-2b plus RBV in children and adolescents with chronic hepatitis C offers favorable efficacy, reduced injection frequency, and an acceptable safety profile.
136 citations
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TL;DR: The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical characteristics and the long‐term outcome of chronic hepatitis C in a cohort of Caucasian children cured of pediatric malignancy.
Abstract: Background
The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical characteristics and the long-term outcome of chronic hepatitis C in a cohort of Caucasian children cured of pediatric malignancy.
Procedure
The study population included 83 consecutive patients, referred to our Center with a diagnosis of leukemia/lymphoma (50) or solid tumors (33) between 1977 and 1989 and infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) during chemotherapy.
Results
At enrollment 77 subjects were HCV-RNA positive. After a median follow-up of 21 years (range 13–36), a sustained virological response (SVR) was obtained in 3 of 29 patients (10%) treated with interferon (IFN), in 1 of 3 patients (33%) treated with IFN and ribavirin, and in 5 of 11 patients (42%) treated with pegylated-IFN and ribavirin (P = 0.03). Forty-two patients remained untreated and only one (2.5%) cleared viremia. Four of 77 patients (5%) developed cirrhosis while other 4 patients died of causes not related to liver. At last follow-up, 72% of HCV-RNA positive patients had abnormal ALT.
Conclusions
In patients cured of pediatric malignancy chronic hepatitis C tends to run an indolent course during childhood and adolescence but more than 70% of treated and more than 80% of untreated cases children maintained HCV viremia. Moreover, after 2–3 decades of observation, 60% of HCV-RNA positive patients had abnormal ALT and 5% had developed cirrhosis. Among treated patients, IFN or pegylated-IFN and ribavirin obtained the higher rate of HCV-RNA clearance. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2010;55:108–112. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
33 citations