Re-treatment with interferon-beta of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of interferon-beta (IFN-beta) in the re-treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C who did not respond to IFN-alpha monotherapy.

Patients And Methods: Thirty patients (24 men and six women; mean age, 41 +/- 13 (SD) years; range, 23-62 years), with chronic hepatitis C that was non-responsive to a standard course of IFN-alpha therapy, were re-treated with recombinant human IFN-beta-1a. All patients received IFN-beta, 12 MIU subcutaneously, three times weekly for 3 months, after which time patients' responses were evaluated.