Coffee intake linked to improved SVR in patients undergoing treatment for hepatitis C

Several epidemiological studies have linked coffee consumption to beneficial effects on liver function tests and also to protection against the development of hepatocellular carcinoma [1,2]. Recently the association of coffee intake and liver disease progression was prospectively examined in participants of the HALT-C trial [3] which demonstrated that higher coffee consumption at baseline (defined as >3 cups/ day) was associated with less severe steatosis on biopsy, lower AST/ALT ratio and lower insulin and HOMA2 score. The relationship of coffee consumption and its effect on therapy for hepatitis C has not been evaluated until this study. Coffee consumption was recorded in 885 patients with Hepatitis C using a food frequency questionnaire prior to retreatment with peginterferon α-2α and ribavirin [4]. Patients were assessed for early virological response (EVR) (defined as ≥ 2 log10 drop in HCV RNA at week 12) and undetectable HCV RNA at 20, 48 and 72 weeks (sustained virological response (SVR)). 85% of the study population drank coffee, with 14.9% of participants drinking ≥3cups/day. Higher percentage of patients who drank ≥ 3 cups/day tolerated full dose peginterferon (60.6% vs 50.4%, p=0.0015). After adjustment for age, race/ethnicity, sex, alcohol, cirrhosis, AST/ALT ratio, IL28B polymorphism rs12979860 and dose reduction in peginterferon, odds ratios for drinking ≥ 3 cups coffee/day vs non-drinkers were 2.0 (95% CI: 1.1-3.6; p trend= 0.004) for EVR, 2.1 (95% CI: 1.1-3.9, p trend= 0.005) for week 20 virological response, 2.4 (95% CI: 1.3-4.6, p trend= 0.001)