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Coffee Consumption Is Associated With Response to Peginterferon and Ribavirin Therapy in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C
Gastroenterology, 06/07/2011
Clinical Article
Freedman ND et al. – High–level consumption of coffee (more than 3 cups per day) is an independent predictor of improved virologic response to peginterferon plus ribavirin in patients with hepatitis C.
Methods- Patients (n = 885) from the lead-in phase of the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-Term Treatment Against Cirrhosis Trial recorded coffee intake before retreatment with peginterferon α-2a (180 μg/wk) and ribavirin (1000–1200 mg/day).
- Patients for early virologic response (2 log10 reduction in level of hepatitis C virus RNA at week 12; n = 466), and undetectable hepatitis C virus RNA at weeks 20 (n = 320), 48 (end of treatment, n = 284), and 72 (sustained virologic response; n = 157) were assessed.
- Median log10 drop from baseline to week 20 was 2.0 (interquartile range [IQR], 0.6–3.9) among nondrinkers and 4.0 (IQR, 2.1–4.7) among patients that drank 3 or more cups/day of coffee (P trend <.0001).
- After adjustment for age, race/ethnicity, sex, alcohol, cirrhosis, ratio of aspartate aminotransferase to alanine aminotransferase, the IL28B polymorphism rs12979860, dose reduction of peginterferon, and other covariates, odds ratios for drinking 3 or more cups/day vs nondrinking were 2.0 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1–3.6; P trend = .004) for early virologic response, 2.1 (95% CI: 1.1–3.9; P trend = .005) for week 20 virologic response, 2.4 (95% CI: 1.3–4.6; P trend = .001) for end of treatment, and 1.8 (95% CI: 0.8–3.9; P trend = .034) for sustained virologic response.
