High-dose silibinin rescue treatment for HCV-infected patients showing suboptimal virologic response to standard combination therapy

Incomplete suppression of hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication with persistence of minimal viremia (partial virologic response) leading to treatment failure can be observed in a significant proportion of HCV type 1‐infected patients during antiviral therapy. Recently, high‐dose intravenous silibinin has demonstrated strong antiviral activity against HCV. We were therefore interested in whether patients with partial virologic response can be rescued by the on‐treatment addition of a short‐term course of high‐dose intravenous silibinin infusions. Twenty patients who failed to achieve a complete virologic response to different interferon‐based regimens qualified for the rescue strategy and received 1400 mg/day silibinin infusions on two consecutive days. Complete viral suppression (below the limit of detection