Can one taking the new PI's have to go through 48 weeks of treatment anyhow?
There's a member of the forum who was in a telaprevir study who actually did receive the tela, and still had to tx for 48 weeks. She is SVR. Maybe she'll chime in?
Lapis
I didn't join the study for altruistic reasons, but I can appreciate your concerns.
I joined to get rid of my disease in a manner I can afford. If that helps someone else, that's an extra benefit - but I would leave the study in a moment if I felt I had better options for getting rid of my disease. Or for any other reason that I felt wasn't absolutely in my best interest.
LOL, I do mean leave IN A HEARTBEAT.
If you are currently involved in a study, you should finish it unless you are physically unable. It is important to the Hep C community at large that those who enter these trials, do their utmost to finish them. If the study participants just leave the study's for no good reason, it will increase the cost of bring new drugs to market. It also muddles the study statistics and could even increase the length of time to get the new drugs to market.
i hope it's 24 weeks for me if i get to tx...seems awful tough for me to afford any more time and money into it...if money wasn't a factor i would have tx 5 years ago for the 48 weeks or what ever..good luck...billy
Wise words Deb. Personally I wanted to treat for 48 weeks in my trial regardless of how early I became und for exactly the reasons you mentioned.
Exactly my sentiments Deb.
Just have to keep reminding ourselves this is not like some other things in medicine - I mean, if you have a headache, you take an aspirin, and you don't think about it anymore. It's just cured.
If I didn't RVR I would certainly want to make sure I got there to UND/SVR no matter what I had to do. That is why I did 72 weeks.
it's all about end game especially if you are lucky enough not to have major sides as in your case.........in any event there is no guarantee no matter what you did it's all about raising the odds as much as you can.
With boceprevir 8 weeks is the new rvr. Perhaps this is because of the 4 week lead in with soc only. If und at 8 weeks tx is 28 weeks, if und between 8-12 weeks tx is 48 weeks. I am unsure about telaprevir.
Well, this all came up as I was explaining to my study doc my dilemma between 48 weeks now, or stop and do 24 weeks later. That's when he told me "You know, 24 weeks of treatment is not a guarantee with the new drugs. That's only for people who have a 4 week response, or RVR".
He did indicate that the standards were still being debated, but for the most part, decided. Just want to make sure his information is accurate.
I think I misread your question before I jumped in with an answer. Somebody more knowledgeable will chime in I'm sure.
Dave.
I am not sure if the protocol is fully established yet. It seems that for tx naive patients it has been 12 weeks soc and telaprevir, then 12 more weeks just soc.
For relapsers and non responders I have heard talk of 48 weeks which I imagine would be 12 of triple therapy and 36 weeks of soc, not sure on that one though.
As far as I my tx brain remembers that is correct
With new direct antivirals it is all about starting of with a very steep decline
and than finish it of with SOC. Less steep decline (no RVR) longer SOC to follow
(48wks)