Can Increased Treatment of Hepatitis C Stem the Tide of Liver Cancer?
Reflecting concern at a projected fourfold increase in the prevalence of chronic hepatitis C infection in the next decade, a National Institutes of Health-sponsored advisory panel has recommended that previously ineligible patients receive the latest combination drug therapy designed to clear the virus from blood. This recommendation and several others were the product of a consensus conference in June convened to update a 1997 report on the management of hepatitis C. The recommendations in the earlier statement excluded several patient groups because there was little information about the efficacy of treatment. But recent studies suggest more patients could be helped by the newer therapies now available. Nevertheless, experts question whether broader treatment efforts will ultimately have an effect on one of the most serious complications of infection liver cancer. Chronic Infection More than four million Americans are infected with the blood-borne virus and most of them have a chroni
