Currently, the best option for patients with hepatitis delta is interferon alpha therapy for at least one year. To evaluate the effect of the combination lamivudine-high-dose interferon alpha therapy, we first treated eight patients with chronic hepatitis delta infection with lamivudine for at least 24 weeks; then lamivudine was combined with a high dose of interferon alpha followed by a regula...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Patients with high-risk essential thrombocythemia require cytoreductive therapy in order to normalize the elevated platelet counts. We evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of pegylated interferon in high-risk essential thrombocythemia in a phase II trial. DESIGN AND METHODS Thirty-six patients with high-risk essential thrombocythemia (median age 54 years; range, 24-72...

conclusions more than one-quarter of treatment-experienced patients with hcv genotype 3 achieved svr after re-treatment with consensus interferon plus ribavirin. objectives we aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of cifn and ribavirin in non-responders and relapsers to pegylated interferon with ribavirin therapy. patients and methods this open-label investigator-initiated study included 44 p...

AIMS AND BACKGROUND Glioblastoma has a poor prognosis, with few therapeutic options if it recurs. We report a case in which we were able to inhibit the growth of a recurrent glioblastoma by weekly single-dose administration of interferon-beta. CASE REPORT A patient with recurrent glioblastoma after radiation and chemotherapy was treated with nimustine and interferon-beta. After 2 cycles of ni...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy and safety of systemic interferon alfa treatment in patients with Adamantiades-Behçet disease. DATA SOURCES Reports and abstracts published in 1986 through 1997 in all languages were identified by the MEDLINE database, the Reference Index Related to Behcet's Disease, the Behçet disease conference proceedings, and abstract booklets. The indexing terms used Be...

Previous studies showed that low dose radiation (LDR) could stimulate the immune system in both animal and human populations. This paper reviews the present status of relevant research as support to the use of LDR in clinical practice for cancer prevention and treatment. It has been demonstrated that radiation-induced changes in immune activity follows an inverse J-shaped curve, i.e., low dose ...

Cardiac arrhythmias and syncope are rare consequence of therapy with pegylated interferon. We report a 55-year-old Egyptian woman who developed palpitation and syncopal attacks twice within 3 months after starting therapy with pegylated interferon alpha2b and ribavirin for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus. Hepatitis C virus-RNA was undetectable after 12 week. The electrocardiogram hol...

BACKGROUND GS-9620 is a potent oral agonist of toll-like receptor 7, a key modulator of the innate immune response. In healthy volunteers, low doses of GS-9620 (2, 4 and 6 mg) induced significant expression of peripheral interferon-stimulated-gene (ISG) mRNA in the absence of detectable serum interferon-α and systemic adverse events (AEs). We evaluated the safety, pharmacokinetics and pharmacod...

Imiquimod [1-(2-methylpropyl)-1H-imidazo[4,5c]quinolin-4-amine] is a compound of low molecular weight that, when administered p.o., induces interferon-alpha in several animal species and inhibits tumor growth in mice. To determine maximum tolerated dose, toxicity, and biological response in humans, a phase I clinical trial was conducted with 14 eligible cancer patients who received 100-500 mg i...