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Undetected at 12 wk EOT!
I had my bloods drawn yesterday for my 12 week EOT test after sofosbuvir/simeprevir/ribavirin. I am lucky to continue to be undetected!! Of course I'm very pleased with these results, and will next follow up with the test in another 12 weeks to make it official at 24. I hope many more here have good test results, too!!
Mark
Mark
FANTASTIC news Mark!!! Yeah! Congratulations to a life Hep C free.
How did you find out the results so quickly? I thought it takes a week for results to come back for viral load.
How did you find out the results so quickly? I thought it takes a week for results to come back for viral load.
It came back the next day. I was very surprised (although usually it comes back within two days: this is a major medical center in NYC, and they do their own testing). Not complaining!
One the the reasons I brought up the issue of being "undetectable" is that here in San Francisco at the UCSF hepatitis clinic which is treating scores of people with the new oral treatment we have seen some lab results showing "detectable but unquantifiable" with patients during treatment. Since it is known from trial data that once a patient becomes undetectable they stay undetectable as long as they are treating (this is assuming the patient is taking their meds properly) these labs result are an error of the test. In fact we has seen one lab the result as "undetectable" while at another lab the result can be "detectable but unquantifiable" (<15 IU/ml) HCV. Note we haven't seen actual viral load numbers only results that are below the level of quantification.
By understanding how these new treatments work, which is very different than past peg-interferon treatments we realize there is little purpose in performing viral load testing during treatment once a patient is undetectable and I would imagine soon many of these test will be eliminated as part of treatment protocol because they serve no useful purpose related to the treatment. But for now we can be sure that any lab test indicating a detectable viral load during treatment (after becoming undetectable) is only a lab error and that a repeat of the viral load test perhaps at another lab would indicate the proper "undetectable" result. One less thing to have to worry about during treatment.
My main point was the outcome of treatment is dependent not on what happens during treatment but what host factors (genotype, subtype, cirrhosis,etc.) exist prior to treatment and what treatment best addresses these factors which will result in the best outcome. This is why in the future we will see treatments the are for special populations of those infected with HCV. The treatments will be based on these host factors. We are already starting to see some of these early approaches. In the genotype 1, treatment naive people who have a 93% SVR rate with only need 8 weeks of Sovaldi/Ledipasvir. In the simple case of cirrhotics we know that interferon based treatments can be detrimental to the person's liver disease and can cause decompensation or liver failure in some patients. In post transplant patients there are the drug-to-drug issues of the past which are not an issue with the new Sovaldi based treatments. We now are beginning to see which treatments in trials are most effective in co-infected people, in people with genotype 3 and genotype 1b vs 1a.
Cheers!
Hector
By understanding how these new treatments work, which is very different than past peg-interferon treatments we realize there is little purpose in performing viral load testing during treatment once a patient is undetectable and I would imagine soon many of these test will be eliminated as part of treatment protocol because they serve no useful purpose related to the treatment. But for now we can be sure that any lab test indicating a detectable viral load during treatment (after becoming undetectable) is only a lab error and that a repeat of the viral load test perhaps at another lab would indicate the proper "undetectable" result. One less thing to have to worry about during treatment.
My main point was the outcome of treatment is dependent not on what happens during treatment but what host factors (genotype, subtype, cirrhosis,etc.) exist prior to treatment and what treatment best addresses these factors which will result in the best outcome. This is why in the future we will see treatments the are for special populations of those infected with HCV. The treatments will be based on these host factors. We are already starting to see some of these early approaches. In the genotype 1, treatment naive people who have a 93% SVR rate with only need 8 weeks of Sovaldi/Ledipasvir. In the simple case of cirrhotics we know that interferon based treatments can be detrimental to the person's liver disease and can cause decompensation or liver failure in some patients. In post transplant patients there are the drug-to-drug issues of the past which are not an issue with the new Sovaldi based treatments. We now are beginning to see which treatments in trials are most effective in co-infected people, in people with genotype 3 and genotype 1b vs 1a.
Cheers!
Hector
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