cirrhosis reversible question

[simon4271]

Hi , most say cirrhosis is not reversible .
Why can cirrhosis be reversed in patients who have hepatitis B taking viread , doctors have told me this .
One of my doctors patients reversed cirrhosis while taking this .
I was under the impression that cirrhosis is cirrhosis no matter the cause .
If they can reverse it in Hepatitis B why not Hepatitis C ? never understood that .
One professor highly acclaimed told me that Cirrhosis in Hepatitis C can be reversed to stage 2 after successful treatment and another highly acclaimed doctor told me it can reversed to stage 3 .
Has anyone also heard this .

[can-do-man]

So what takes years and years to cause can all be reversed in a matter of weeks? Please ask them their secret Pam as I need to know it.

Sorry Simion, I have no answer to your question.

[Pamelajean1]

Great article Wm.....thanks for sharing. This is of great interest to me as I have just tested 12 weeks EOT and have outstanding results.

For those of you that don't know me....I WAS GT 1a, cirrhotic with ascites, Q80K positive....treated with Sovaldi/Olysio for 12 weeks. Just confirmed that I am SVR12 this past week. :)

Also received the results from my ultrasound that was done same day as my 12 EOT labs. What I've been having a hard time wrapping my head around is the report...Long story short...my ultrasound has come back normal. "Liver homogeneous (uniform in structure, composition or nature, same texture throughout)....without enlargement or focal defect." Pancreas, GB, kidneys, spleen all good. No ascites. "IMPRESSION: Negative abdominal ultrasound." My first reaction was...'Hope it's my liver their looking at and not someone else's.' Lol

I've consulted with several docs and radiology this past week. It is in fact my liver. And yes my ultrasound six months ago showed cirrhosis and ascites. Hep doc says I could still have a wee bit of cirrhosis but if I do it's so slight that it didn't show up.

So there ya go....I'm walking, talking, living proof...and I've got the scans on cd to prove it. To have those results in addition to SVR12 all in one week is....well, it's hard to describe, to be quite honest.

I'm in the 'trust but verify' mode though and will repeat labs in 3 months as opposed to 6 plus I have requested having a FibroScan as well.

[WmoMitch]

Simon,

Good question and one that has received attention and debate.  There are various articles and posts that I've seen on this topic, one of the easiest for me to follow is:

http://hepatitiscnewdrugs.blogspot.com/2012/01/hepatitis-c-clinical-evidence-for.html

and if you have any limitations in this link, a search for

"Hepatitis C-Clinical evidence for the regression of liver fibrosis" should yield some good results.

Maybe you could ask docs/profs what they think of this article or others you find.  That is one way of providing them with  references and info, and not challenging any authority while showing that you are well informed.

Best wishes,  

Wm