Treatment with peginterferon versus interferon in Chinese patients with hepatitis B

Several new clinical trials to compare the efficiency of pegylated interferon (PEGIFN) treatment with IFN treatment in Chinese patients with hepatitis B were published in recent years. However, the numbers of patients included in these clinical trials are too small to draw a clear conclusion whether PEGIFN is more effective than INF in Chinese patients. Therefore, a new meta-analysis was needed to be performed to compare PEGIFN with IFN in the treatment of Chinese hepatitis B patients. A search of MEDLINE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database and China Biomedical Database between 1966 and 2009 was performed. RCTs comparing the use of PEGIFN vs. IFN in treating Chinese patients with hepatitis B were assessed. Of the 210 studies screened, nine RCTs included 581 patients (PEGIFN therapy 281, IFN therapy 300) were analysed. The HBeAg seroconversion rates, serum HBeAg clearance rate, serum HBV DNA clearance rate and ALT normalization rate obtained in patients treated with PEGINF were significantly higher than in patients treated with IFN at the 24th, 48th week of the treatment and the 24th, 48th week of follow-up. Safety profile was similar between patients treated with PEGIFN and IFN. Chinese patients with hepatitis B have a greater likelihood of achieving a viral response, biomedical response and liver fibrosis improvement with PEGIFN α-2a.