Who is more likely to respond to dual treatment with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C? A gender-oriented analysis

Summary We assessed, in real‐life practice, viral, demographic, genetic and metabolic factors influencing the sustained virologic response (SVR), with a gender‐oriented analysis, in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. Six hundred and seventy naïve patients were treated with dual therapy and evaluated by gender and HCV genotype. Associations between baseline variables and SVR were assessed by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Among 362 genotype 1 patients, SVR was achieved in 158 patients (44%), and SVR was independently associated with age less than 50 years (OR 2.12; 95% CI 1.09–4.30; P = 0.039) and C/C genotype rs12979860 SNP (OR 2.83; 1.19–6.74; P = 0.002) in 163 females, while absence of visceral obesity (OR 2.491; 1.131–5.487; P = 0.023), HCV‐RNA lower than 400 000 IU/mL (OR 2.66; 1.273–5.558; P = 0.009) and C/C genotype rs12979860 SNP (OR 4.969; 2.401–10.283; P