16 week treatment possible for RVR Gen 2 and 3 at wk 4

[granitekonig]

I'm interested in what you all think about this:

http://www.hepctrust.org.uk/news/2008/June/


It seems the relapse rate isn't significantly different than for 24 week RVR's at wk 4.

[GoofyDad]

I'd encourage anyone interested to read carefully the Von Wagner and Mangia studies. I think close examination of those papers will encourage you that this course is worthy of consideration, even for GT 3. You can buy these papers online for 20 bucks or so, if you can't find them free.

Be clear about whether you are taking weight based riba, and that you're looking at studies using the same in your research.

Paste this into Google for some of the threads I've participated in on the subject:
site:www.medhelp.org goofydad mangia

  

[epiphiny]

Thanks for reminding me of that!  Although I have made my decision to treat for 48 weeks there are days where I find myself trying to talk myself out of that decision.  It would be nice to think that I could be done with these drugs in 10 days and that I would definitely achieve SVR.  I love the way my mind can take information and spin it in a way that works for my weaker self!  But the fact is I started with a VL of 1.7M and despite getting RVR at 4 weeks I was a previous non responder so 48 weeks here I come!

Epi.

[zazza]

"The four-month treatment course will be for patients with particular strains of chronic hepatitis C (genotype 2 or 3) who have low virus levels before starting treatment, and who show a rapid virological response by clearing the virus from the blood within the first 4 weeks of treatment."

Notice: "LOW VIRUS LEVELS"!

Anybody with a viral load greater than 400'000 IU/ml should forget about shortening tx even if RVR.

[epiphiny]

I wholeheartedly agree with lolitriqui.  G3 is proving to be more tricky than originally thought and a lot of the studies that you will find clump 2s and 3s in the same trial which skews the results.  It is now thought that 3 is somewhere between 1 & 2 in terms of difficulty to achieve SVR.

I am a G3 and currently on my 2nd round of tx as I did not respond to tx first time round.  This time I have responded and I am currently at week 23 - I intend to go to 48 weeks.  This is a choice I have made and I have the support of my medical team based on my past tx experience and current response despite the current SOC protocols.

The key point is that everyone is individual and it is better to tailor treatment according to your response.  You need a well informed doctor (hepatologist) who is up with current thinking who you can communicate well with and you both need to keep an open mind.

It seems that you are very keen to get rid of the virus so, like all things in life, the quickest way is not necessarily the way that will get you the result you want.

Epi.

[lolitriqui]

hi!! for gt2's  it's an option, for gt 3's i'd stay away from it.