A prospective, hospital-based study enrolling 100 chronic hepatitis C patients concomitant with hepatocellular carcinoma and other sex- and age-matched 100 chronic hepatitis C patients without malignancy will be conducted. The 100 chronic hepatitis C patients concomitant with hepatocellular carcinoma will receive pegylated interferon-alpha 2a plus ribavirin combination therapy at remission phase after oncological treatments and/or interventions. The other 100 chronic hepatitis C patients without malignancy receiving the same antiviral therapy will serve as controls. The primary outcome measurement is sustained virological response and safety, whilst the secondary measurement is rapid virological and early virological response.
Combination therapy with pegylated interferon-alpha plus ribavirin has greatly improved the treatment efficacy and is the mainstream of treatment for chronic hepatitis C infection. The efficacy and safety of pegylated interferon-alpha plus ribavirin combination therapy and its impact on the outcome in chronic hepatitis C patients concomitant with hepatocellular carcinoma deserve to be elucidated.~The purposes of this study are:~To evaluate the efficacy and safety of pegylated interferon-alpha 2a plus ribavirin combination therapy in chronic hepatitis C patients concomitant with hepatocellular carcinoma.~To investigate the role of baseline and on-treatment factors on the response to pegylated interferon-alpha 2a plus ribavirin combination therapy in chronic hepatitis C patients concomitant with hepatocellular carcinoma.