IF YOU TEST POSITIVE BY WEEK 12

[ameer]

HELLO:

IF YOUR QUALITATIVE PCR IS POSITIVE AFTER 12 WEEKS OF TREATMENT.

1-SHOULD THE TREATMENT BE STOPPED BECAUSE ITS NOT WORTH?
2-OR IT CAN BE CONTINUED FOR NEXT 12 WEEKS (TOTAL 24 WEEKS)?
3-OR IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO DO A QUANTITATIVE PCR AND SEE HOW MUCH VIRUS IS LEFT AND IF ITS LESS (SAY 6000 IU/ML),THEN DECIDE TO CONTINUE/DISCONTINUE TREATMENT?

ANY ADVICE FOR A GENOTYPE 3?

[cuteus]

it looks as if for geno 2 and 3, they do a qualitative because all they are interested in, is whether they are clear or not by wk 12. More and more drs are not using the log drop anymore, it becomes meaningless if HCV is still present at wk 12, especially for someone with a genotype that is supposed to respond early, in order to complete the standard 24 wks.  The studies out there do not present a significant SVR improvement for g3 when going 48 wks.  You need to discuss a change of strategy or whether it is worth continuing further.

[NYgirl]

I tested pos. at week 12 and my doctor would not even consider me stopping until week 24. I tested neg then.

I understand it is that way with most doctors.

[GrandOak]

Why do a qualitative test at wk 12?  What you want is a quantitative measure to see if you've had a 2 log drop from your baseline VL (see http://health.yahoo.com/topic/hepatitis/symptoms/article/healthwise/hw144321 ):

Qualitative test. This test determines whether HCV RNA is in your blood. If it is, the virus is multiplying, which indicates an active infection.

Quantitative test. This type of test estimates the number of HCV particles in your blood (viral load) and can help predict how likely you are to respond to medical treatment. However, the viral load does not indicate the level of liver damage.

[Kalio1]

My opinion is NO it is not time to stop treatment, but it is time to reaccess and thin about increasing dosages and extending the length of time you treat for. You want to knok that virus down to undetetable and then keep going on treatment for 32 or 26 weeks beyond that at least. There are papers on this that show it really helps inrease your chanes to add some to the dose and/or to extend the weeks treating. I am a geno 3 also and I relapsed after 24 weeks and now am doing 48 more.