hopefully someone else will chime in. But, I have a question, why did you stop after getting "red dots" ??
Hi Kelly; welcome to the discussion group--
It sounds as though the last few years have been quite challenging for you, to say the least. My understanding is that you have treated twice; once with pegylated (once weekly) interferon, and a second time with daily Infergen. Neither of these allowed you to achieve a viral response to date?
At present, your options are limited, I’m afraid. As a stage 4 cirrhotic, your angst is understandable. There is a new class of drugs now in late-stage clinical trial; they are collectively known as protease inhibitors, and could be on the market in as little as two years. They will be added as an adjunctive to the current interferon/ribavirin combo; and appear to increase the efficacy of treatment for genotype 1 patients considerably, along with the potential for shortening treatment duration.
The name of the two meds closest to release are ‘Teleprevir’ (Vertex Pharmaceuticals) and ‘Boceprevir’(Schering-Plough); you’ll want to watch these drugs carefully, and discuss them with your doctor, to get his take on them. We have a member here that had a situation similar to yours; he had treated 7 times, all non-responsive. He finally got accepted into a phase two trial, and with the help of Teleprevir, beat the virus.
Take care, and stay in touch with the discussion group here; let us know how things go for you—
Bill
I don't understand why kelly stopped? If the red dots were a result of low platelets couldn't a helper drug be given. 150 VL is low, why wouldn't she just stay on tx with helper drugs and extend?
Hi Stacey,
That’s a good question; maybe Kelley can provide some answers for us. I just took it her doctor must have called the shots, and took it from there; you’re right, I didn’t consider asking her.
There aren’t any support drugs for platelets that are used for HCV; although there are some for ITP. I’m not sure what might have caused the ‘little red dots’; although I believe sometimes things like petechiae can be due to hepatic decompensation; maybe her doc pulled her because of something like this? And I hear that occasionally ‘riba rash’ can be severe enough to warrant Tx discontinuation too.
Again, hopefully Kelley will stop back and inform us,
Bill