Acute pancreatitis associated with pegylated interferon-alpha-2a therapy in chronic hepatitis C

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Combination therapy of pegylated interferon-alpha (PEG-IFN-α) and ribavirin (RBV) is a current standard treatment for chronic HCV infection in Korea, which has considerable adverse effects. Acute pancreatitis is a rare complication of PEG-IFN-α administration. We report a case of a 62-year-old female who experienced acute pancreatitis after 4 weeks of PEG-IFN-α-2a and RBV combination therapy for chronic HCV infection. The main cause of the acute pancreatitis in this case was probably PEG-IFN-α rather than RBV for several reasons. A few cases have been reported in which acute pancreatitis occurred during treatment with PEG-IFN-α-2b. This is the first report of acute pancreatitis associated with PEG-IFN-α-2a in Korea.