Newly Diagnosed - looking for guidance

I was diagnosed with Hep C about three wees ago.  I found out today that I have Genotype 1A and had some additional blood work done.  I am going for a biopsy next week.

The doctor mentioned treatmentwith and without the drug Incevik (sp?) and said that the one with is much more effective but harder on your body,  I need to continue working (I am and educator).  

Where do I find good information?  Where do I start?  There is so mucj to weed through.  Any guidance/advice is greatly appreciated.

[hrsepwrguy]

Sorry to hear about your recent diagnoses, you are in the right place for good info lots of knowledgable and treatment savy people here. Welcome to the forum. Looks like your doc is doing good, all people respond different to the meds so predicting side effects is hard to do, some cruise right through some have some trouble.

[hrsepwrguy]

Treatment with Incivek give you a 75% chance of SVR(cure) compared to 40 to 50% with SOC (standard of care = interferon and ribavirin)

[hrsepwrguy]

Also if you repond well to triple therapy(incivek) treatment duration can be reduced to 24 wks vs 48 wks with SOC

[Gracie_Lue]

I'm so sorry about your news. I came across this site when I had first found out I had hep and it was such a God send. Knowing your geno type is a good start for things. Once you get your biopsy you wil know for sure where you are at in this and when you will need to treet. Good luck!

[TripleCrown]

You've come to the right place. There are some super helpful intelligent people here who know so much. They helped me out a lot.
I'm on victrelis the other drug approved to treat hepc of the protease inhibitors. I chose it over incivek but each person must arm themselves with information and make their own decision on what is right for them.
Good luck. Keep in touch we are all in this together.

[JasmineT]

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis.  Welcome to the forum.  

There are a couple of new drugs approved. By the FDA that significantly improve your chances for cure and may reduce your treat time by as much as 6 months depending on your situation.  

Incivek (called teleprevir during the trials)
Victrelis (called boceprevir during the trials)

Either of these may be added to what was the previous standard treatement of interferon and ribaviron.  Interferon is essentially a low dose of chemotherapy so this is serious regardless of the new drugs.  The new drugs increase the chance of success significantly and may reduce treat times and based on my geno type and state I would not have considered treating without the third drug.

Searching on the trial names for the drugs may give you some good info on statistics.  Be careful to check the dates of the information you find.  You will need ton filter a bit on what is standard vs early trials vs current.

There are other drugs in trial now that will likely be a few years to approval that are also promising.

Here are some links I bookmarked that may add value.
http://www.natap.org/2011/PDF/NurseMary.pdf
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ByAudience/ForPatientAdvocates/ucm256328.htm
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/Drugs/AntiviralDrugsAdvisoryCommittee/UCM252561.pdf
http://www.incivek.com/
http://www.hbvadvocate.org/hepatitis/factsheets_pdf/Disability_Guide.pdf
http://www.liverdisease.com/womenhcv.html

Good that you are taking time to research this.  Hope you find the path that is right for you in slaying the dragon.  The new treatments put you in a much better place for success.

[LA618]

I appreciate all the info as well as the websites.  It is nice to know that there is a community out there.