Washington: A new study has found that advanced hepatitis C patients with chronic liver disease may benefit from drinking coffee during treatment.
Patients who received peginterferon plus ribavirin treatment and who drank three or more cups of coffee per day were two times more likely to respond to treatment than non-drinkers. Coffee intake has been associated with a lower level of liver enzymes, reduced progression of chronic liver disease and reduced incidence of liver cancer," said Neal Freedman, of the National Cancer Institute and the study`s lead author.
Although we observed an independent association between coffee intake and virologic response to treatment, this association needs replication in other studies," he said. Among the non-drinkers studied, 46 per cent had an early virologic response; 26 per cent had no detectable serum hepatitis C virus (HCV) ribonucleic acid at week 20; 22 per cent had no detectable serum at week 48; and 11 per cent had a sustained virologic response.
In contrast, the corresponding proportions for those who drank three or more cups of coffee per day were 73 per cent, 52 per cent, 49 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively.
The study appeared in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.
ANI