The reasons for hepatitis C treatment failure remain unknown but may be related to different host responses to
therapy. In this study, we compared hepatic
gene expression in patients prior to and during peginterferon and ribavirin therapy. In the on-treatment group, patients received either ribavirin for 72 hours prior to peginterferon alpha-2a injection or peginterferon alpha-2a for 24 hours, prior to biopsy.