Treating Non-responders

March 10, 2005

I'm not a mathematician, but it seems to me that one with those skills could discern from this article what the SVR rate among genotype 1 patients is after initial treatment and what it is after retreatment.

The article states that about 45% of patients are unresponsive to treatment. We know that genotypes 2, 3, are more responsive (each one is different, but I've heard that two is up over 85%).

They mention the results for non 1 genotypes but not for 1.

If anyone reading this can do the math, please post it.

Thanks.

Gastroenterologie
Clinique et Biologique

Volume 29 No 2 de March 2005

Treatment of chronic hepatitis C in patients unresponsive to interferon

Aim

About 45% of patients with chronic hepatitis C are unresponsive to the present reference treatment combining pegelated interferon plus ribavirin; before pegylated interferon was available the non-response rate was around 60%. This open multicenter pilot study, initiated before pegylated interferon became available, was designed to evaluate, in patients unresponsive to interferon monotherapy, the rate of biological and virological response and side-effects of the ribivirin- alpha 2b interferon combination.

Methods

The combination protocol was ribavirin (1 to 1.2 g/d) plus alpha 2b interferon at induction doses (9 MU/d the first week; 4.5 MU/d the eleven following weeks; 3 MU/2 days the 36 following weeks).

Results

Among the 27 included patients, 17 (63%) were viremia-negative (PCR) after 12 weeks of treatment, 9 (33%) were complete responders (undetectable viremia and normal transaminases) at the end of treatment (48 weeks) and of follow-up (72 weeks). Patients with non-1, non-4 genotypes who derived full benefit from this therapeutic strategy (6/7 (86%) were complete responders: 4/5 with genotype 3 and 2/2 with genotype 5). Quality-of-life was impaired during treatment, especially during the first 12 weeks of high-dose interferon therapy.

Conclusion

While waiting for new therapeutic possibilities, these good results suggest interferon induction at the beginning of treatment remains a valid option.

Posted by Ralph at March 10, 2005 11:31 AM

1 Comments

Quest May 22, 2005 11:14 AM

Hello,

I was originally diagnoised with Hepititis C in 1995. I was treated with Interferon and Copegus in 1998 and 2002. I was a partial responder in both instances. I just received my blood results and was pleased to see my enzymes at normal levels. However, my viral load has shot up to 4.5 million units.

At what point will the viral load begin to cause damage to the liver?

Should I consider another round of treatment?

Are there other clinical trials I would be a good candidate for?

Thank you,
Quest

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