12 Week PCR Results...Should I Continue?

  I'm in 14th week of Combo. (Inf/Riba) trtmnt (Naive)and just
  rec'd my 12 week PCR results. Went from a Baseline of 880,000 to
  120,000. Alt and AST have been normal since week one. Only
  slightly elevated pre-trtmnt. No other symptoms. I am
  now questioning the potential for later response. I thought I had
  the primary characteristics that would be favorable for response;
  female, 41 yrs., no fibrosis, low Viral Load. (Don't know
  genotype). Should I continue for at least 6 months or look at
  other treatment options? I'm tolerating the treatment fairly well.

[HFHSM.D.-D.M.]

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Dear Donna:
You ask an excellent question and I appreciate the opportunity to answer it.  
With standard therapy with interferon, if people did not eliminate virus by PCR by week 12, they were unlikely to clear virus with continued interferon therapy and we often recommended patients stop.
However with combination therapy (interferon/ribavirin), some patients who do not respond by 12 weeks appear to respond later.  We still don