A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Interferon Alfa-2b Alone and after Prednisone Withdrawal for the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B

Abstract

In chronic hepatitis B, treatment with interferon alfa-2b (5 million units per day for 16 weeks) was effective in inducing a sustained loss of viral replication and achieving remission, assessed biochemically and histologically, in over a third of patients. Moreover, in about 10 percent of the patients treated with interferon, hepatitis B surface antigen disappeared from serum.