I was type 1 and txed 2 yrs ago.I am SVR now.I remember how intense my fear about TX was,most of that is fear of not knowing just how the TX and the result will be.Now its like a very long bad dream.It happened but its like it never did.Im fine now and life is even better cuz that yr sucked and I wont have another one like it.Just do it and get it over with.Tell your doc to watch your hgb and give you Procrite sooner than later.
You should definitely wait until the new PI drugs are available, which should be within a year. The progress of HCV is slow, so the wait should not put you at any increased risk unless you have very late stage liver damage. Get a biopsy to check that.
Why wait? The current SOC is 48 weeks of treatment that is rough on you and both scary and rough on your loved ones. The treatment protocol for Telaprevir is likely to be 12 weeks with a considerably higher probability of SVR [another dead dragon].
FWIW, I was Geno 1B with a VL of 24,500,000. I treated in an early Telaprevir trial. VL went to UND by day 15 of treatment in 2006. Still SVR. Its worth the wait for the shorter treatment protocol. Keep the faith, don't drink, eat well, and get yourself ready to kill the dragon next year.
I haven't heard of any 12 week protocol for Geno 1's.... it may be 24 weeks, though, if you get RVR. And that could be another very good reason to wait and do the Telaprevir.
Haven't heard of a 12 week protocol either.
The 12 week protocols are what Vertex and others are shooting for with their PI drugs, based on the large data set compiled from their Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials. I'm not saying it will happen, but it looks entirely possible based on the data. It became clear as far back as Prove 1 that subjects who responded to the treatment did so very early in the dosing. Prove 1 was 24 weeks [12 weeks of Telaprevir + Pegasys + Riba] followed by 12 weeks of Pegasys + Riba. I believe almost all of the SVR cases had reached UND within the first four weeks of treatment.
For example, the recently announced Teleprevir + VX222 trial comprises four arms, each with a 12 week protocol:
"The randomized, parallel-group, dose-ranging trial announced today is designed to evaluate the safety and antiviral activity, including SVR, of multiple 12-week response-guided telaprevir/VX-222-based combination regimens."