African Americans Currently Treating

Hello everyone, I am new to this board. I am an African American female looking for other African Americans who have treated or are currently treating.  I would like to know their experiences with treatment and if they are treating with the new meds are they responding.  I am a Genotype 1a and looking to treat with Victrelis in January or February.  

Thanks

[beeblessed]

Hi Hopeful.  Thanks for asking this question.  Yes!  I am in the same boat.  African American female.  Hep C, Gen 1, beginning VL - 10,700,000.  Started September 1st with 4 week lead-in of SOCs.  VL dropped to - 329,000.  Added Victrelis at week 5.  Will go for labs again October 25th and hopefully have 8 week results (so, 4 weeks on VIC + SOCs) to share on Halloween.

Giving you a bump up.  

Anybody else out there?  Either pre, post or currently treating??  We have factors that make this more difficult but there is a lot of hope with triple therapy, and perhaps, even more with the all orals (but no way of knowing for sure how soon those will be an option, other than in Clinical Trials).

[HopefulforSVR]

Thanks Beblessed, I am looking forward to following you and others as you go through treatment.  Your experiences are very important to those of us following in your shoes.  Thanks for the bump.

[curiouslady1]

Hello,  just wanted to welcome you Hopeful.  I am not AA but I enjoy seeing diversity develop on this list.  We also see people from other countries and cultures which really contributes to the on line experience I think.  Hope you and I and Bee will become HepC free soon!

[HectorSF]

Welcome! Glad to have you aboard. Sorry you have hep C but now is the best time ever to successfully treat the virus.

Here is the data from the the clinical trials for Victrelis (formerly called Boceprevir) regarding SVR (cure) rates for African-Americans who have never been treated before and and treatment-experienced patients, not including null responders to previous treatment.
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"Boceprevir was evaluated for genotype 1 HCV infection in randomized, double-blind phase III trials of treatment-naive patients (SPRINT-2)[28] and treatment-experienced patients, not including null responders to pegIFN/RBV (RESPOND-2).[23] Based on the theoretical concept that reducing viral levels before the administration of the DAA agent might protect against resistance, boceprevir administration was preceded by a “lead-in” phase of 4 weeks with pegIFN/RBV alone in both trials. In the SPRINT-2 trial, the control group received placebo plus pegIFN/RBV for 44 weeks following the lead-in. The second group received boceprevir plus pegIFN/RBV for 24 weeks following the lead-in; those with detectable HCV RNA between Weeks 8 and 24 received placebo plus pegIFN/RBV through Week 48. In the final group, patients received boceprevir plus pegIFN/RBV 44 weeks following the lead-in.

Rates of SVR following treatment with boceprevir and pegIFN/RBV in treatment-naive (never before treated) patients were 67% and 68% in nonblack patients in the response-guided and 48-week arms, respectively, vs 40% in patients receiving pegIFN/RBV alone.

In black patients, the SVR rates were 42% and 53%, respectively, vs 23% in patients receiving pegIFN/RBV alone.

The treatment arms for the RESPOND-2 study were the same as for the SPRINT-2 study, except the response-guided arm received 32 weeks of pegIFN/RBV plus boceprevir following the lead-in phase, and patients with detectable HCV RNA at Week 8 received an additional 12 weeks of pegIFN/RBV through Week 48. In the RESPOND-2 study, SVR rates were 69% and 75% with response-guided and fixed-duration therapy in previous relapsers vs 29% following retreatment with pegIFN/RBV alone in this same population. Rates of SVR were 40% and 52%, respectively, for previous partial responders retreated with boceprevir plus pegIFN/RBV vs 7% for those retreated with pegIFN/RBV. In this trial, on-treatment response was an excellent predictor of SVR—rates of SVR were higher if patients had undetectable HCV RNA at Week 8, ie, Week 4 of boceprevir administration (86% and 88% after 32 and 44 weeks of triple therapy, respectively). "

Hope this helps you.
Hector

[desrt]

Response to IFN tx has less to do with race per se than with the fact that one of the genes that predicts response has a higher incidence among Europeans than Africans.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7262/abs/nature08309.html

"Because the genotype leading to better response is in substantially greater frequency in European than African populations, this genetic polymorphism also explains approximately half of the difference in response rates between African-Americans and patients of European ancestry."

This means if you take the IL28B test and your result is CC, your chances are actually better to SVR than a European who tests CT or TT.
Welcome and Good Luck.

[HopefulforSVR]

Thank you all for your comments.  I will definitely use the references and advice as I move closer to treatment.

desrt, I have taken the IL28B test and am waiting for my results to come back.  

I am looking forward to getting to know everyone on this forum.  Again, thanks for all the help.