Applications selleck chemical Sorafenib The authors clarified that s-VEGF-A, including VEGF165b, had a function to inhibit neoangiogenesis. However, it remains unexplained what kinds of cells secrete VEGF165b and what factors induce VEGF165b expression. Studies of TAMs in colorectal cancer, especially those expressing VEGF165b, may be a key to developing a novel therapeutic strategy. Peer review This is an excellent manuscript, with a well done methodological approach, and showing a correlation with stromal VGEF expression and colorectal cancer prognosis. Footnotes Peer reviewer: Josep M Pique, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, Hospital Cl��nic of Barcelona, Barcelona 08036, Spain S- Editor Wu X L- Editor Ma JY E- Editor Xiong L
Globally, it has been estimated that 170 million people are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and 3 to 4 million are infected each year.

1,2 The HCV is a major public health problem and a leading cause of chronic liver disease.3 Natural history studies indicate that 55% to 85% of individuals who develop acute hepatitis C will remain HCV-infected.4-6 The risk of developing cirrhosis ranges from 5% to 25% over periods of 25 to 30 years.7,8 The currently recommended therapy for chronic HCV infection is the combination of pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin.9 The sustained virological response (SVR) rates in patients treated with PEG-IFN and ribavirin are 50% in HCV genotype 1 and 80-90% in HCV genotype 2 or 3.9-12 The achievement of the SVR in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) has been associated with improvements in liver histology as well as a reduced risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver-related mortality.

13-15 Previous studies reported that the SVR after PEG-IFN and ribavirin combination therapy was maintained up to 99-100% during the long-term follow-up.16-20 However, a Korean study recently reported that the reappearance rate of HCV RNA after SVR was as high as 11%.21 Therefore, we investigated the reappearance rate of HCV RNA after SVR in CHC patients treated with PEG-IFN and ribavirin. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients and treatments Three hundred forty three consecutive patients with CHC were treated with PEG-IFN and ribavirin at Paik Hospital, Busan, Korea, between April 2004 and December 2008. Among them, 292 patients (85.1%) with SVR were included in this study.

They were treated with subcutaneous injections of either PEG-IFN-�� 2a (Pegasys?; F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd., Basel, Switzerland), at a dose of 180 ��g/week or PEG-IFN-�� 2b (Peg-Intron?; Schering Plough Corp., Kenilworth, NJ), at a dose of 1.5 ��g/kg/week and ribavirin orally. The ribavirin dose was determined according Anacetrapib to the HCV genotype and the patients’ body weight, as follows: dose of 1,000 mg/day (for patients weighing ��75 kg) or 1,200 mg/day (for patients weighing >75 kg) in genotype 1 and 800-1,000 mg/day in genotype non-1.