Vespasiani-Gentilucci U, Galati G, Gallo P, De Vincentis A, Riva E, Picardi A. Hepatitis C treatment in the elderly: New possibilities and controversies towards interferon-free regimens. World J Gastroenterol 2015; 21(24): 7412-7426 [PMID: 26139987 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i24.7412]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Umberto Vespasiani-Gentilucci, MD, PhD, Internal Medicine and Hepatology Unit, University Campus Bio-Medico, Via Alvaro del Portillo 200, 00128 Rome, Italy. u.vespasiani@unicampus.it
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 28, 2015; 21(24): 7412-7426 Published online Jun 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i24.7412
Hepatitis C treatment in the elderly: New possibilities and controversies towards interferon-free regimens
Umberto Vespasiani-Gentilucci, Giovanni Galati, Paolo Gallo, Antonio De Vincentis, Elisabetta Riva, Antonio Picardi
Umberto Vespasiani-Gentilucci, Giovanni Galati, Paolo Gallo, Antonio De Vincentis, Antonio Picardi, Internal Medicine and Hepatology Unit, University Campus Bio-Medico, 00128 Rome, Italy
Elisabetta Riva, Virology Unit, University Campus Bio-Medico, 00128 Rome, Italy
Author contributions: Vespasiani-Gentilucci U, Galati G, Gallo P and De Vincentis A contributed to conception, design and drafting of the present manuscript; Riva E and Picardi A revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors deny any potential conflict of interest relevant to this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Umberto Vespasiani-Gentilucci, MD, PhD, Internal Medicine and Hepatology Unit, University Campus Bio-Medico, Via Alvaro del Portillo 200, 00128 Rome, Italy. u.vespasiani@unicampus.it
Telephone: +39-6-225411207 Fax: +39-6-225411944
Received: January 14, 2015 Peer-review started: January 14, 2015 First decision: March 26, 2015 Revised: April 10, 2015 Accepted: May 20, 2015 Article in press: May 21, 2015 Published online: June 28, 2015 Processing time: 166 Days and 15.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a significant threat to the health of elderly patients, in whom liver disease progresses very rapidly and extrahepatic complications affect the quality of life. Till now, treatment attempts have been substantially limited by the side effects of interferon (IFN). Here we discuss how the availability of IFN-free regimens should prompt us to change our mind when assessing treatment indication and to consider a significantly larger number of possible candidates among elderly patients. Drug-drug interactions and assessment of liver disease-dependent vs comorbidities-dependent life expectancy, rather than anagraphic age, are likely to guide the choice of the aged HCV patients to be treated in the next future.
