Suspended Interferon therapy and successful results?

[Tahquitz]

I am a HepC, geno 1 who had 14 weeks of Inter/riba therapy. At the 12 week test the viral load was undetected. At  week 14 an MRSA infection almost killed me and suspended therapy. After 10 weeks of recovery, a test prior to restart showed no viral load detected and I was not restarted on therapy.
I cannot consider myself safe as I must test every 3 months and if the viral load increases, I am considered a “non-responder”. At least on the therapy I knew what to expect day to day and now have to live in 3 month periods.  Has anyone had a similar experience and what was the eventual outcome?

[cuteus]

how sensitive was the PCR test done after the 10 wks post tx?
If it was a sensitive qualitative test and it comes back negative a year post tx, Your system finished what tx started. It has happened where the immune system picks up after tx discontinuation and it clears the virus. Hopefully you will be one of those lucky folks!  a member here, Derail, had that experience.  He posted his svr not too long ago, you might be able to do a search here and see if it pops up.
next to spontaneous clearance, this is the best.
GL on your next pcr.

[Leany]

Are there differnt levels of test ?

[cuteus]

some techno reading on tests:
http://www.projectsinknowledge.com/Init/G/1665/1665-TxReporter.pdf

[Leany]

Thank You all :)
    E

[jmjm530]

Sounds like you've been through quite a time!

But the good news is that you've been undectectable for over 2 months. Because of this, there's every reason to be optimistic that you've cleared the virus. But given your unusual case, testing the viral load every three months for the next year isn't a bad idea. Just ask your doc to use a sensitive qualitative or sensitive quantative test that goes down to 50 IU/ml.

One correction. In the event the virus does come back, you would not be considered a "non-responder." In fact you responded very well and they would probably re-treat using the same medications but for the normal course.

One question, did you have a biopsy prior to treatment and do you know what stage of liver damage you have? Also, what drugs did you use (Pegasys or Peg Intron) and the doses.

Good luck with your upcoming tests and don't forget to check back and keep us informed.

[jmjm530]

That's an excellent site btw (Project Knowledge) that Cuteus directed you too.

But simply, yes, some tests are more sensitive than others. Without going into too much detail, the first test people usually get before they treat is usually not that sensitive since they proably have a lot of virus anyway.

But once treatment begins it is better to use sensitive tests to detect any remaining virus. Some tests detect as low as 2 IU/ml but anyting with a sensitivity of < 50 IU/ml should be OK. That's as low as they go in most of the European trials and some doctors question the clinical significance of anything below that.

My doc is one of those but personally I take the Quest Diagnostics Heptimax test that goes down to 5 IU/ml.