Success rate for new treatment if had previous treatment.

[pjhouse]

If one has had the previous treatment for hep c and it was unsuccessful, does this affect the possible success of the new treatment?

[jjsmomma11]

Hello, I believe the local health dept in your city should be able to direct you AND there is a self test, or home test one can obtain to test for HepC. I will provide the info to you willbb, in the next day or so. Stay tuned, please.  Goodluck, GOD is my pilot and I will prevail. Blessings.

[hrsepwrguy]

Your state or county health dept will give you a screening test for free, however it is only the antibodies test, if you test positive for antibodies then you would need to have PCR RNA and genotype test to determine how much hcv and what type you have in your blood. Most states have an indigent, low income health care assistance plan that you could apply for at the health deptment as well, it bills on a sliding scale based on income and expenses or if you have children in the household, medicaid is good about helping low income families.

[jjsmomma11]

Hello, regarding the HepC, present clinical trials with polymerases like the one you mentioned, (PSI7977 + BMS 790052).
Aren't they testing only on the treatment naive patients? Will they begin any trials with the polymerases at end of 2011 for the previously treated patients/null responders (previously treated with Peginterferon/Riba).
Does anyone know of how an uninsured teenager/young adult might get tested/ screened for HepC for free? The Hepatitis blood screen test is really expensive for someone without insurance. Thanks to everyone, and blessings to all.

[burned74]

Here is some great info from the various clinical trials on re-treatment from Clinical Care Options.

http://www.clinicaloptions.com/Hepatitis/Annual%20Updates/2011%20Annual%20Update/Modules/DAA%20Expd/Pages/Page%201.aspx

[can-do-man]

I for one think murari odds would be much greater then 20%. In his own words during his first tx he was not very Compliance on taking his meds........ And as we know that is the most important things to gain SVR...........Looking forward to your SVR, its in the bag.

[babs824]

thank u so much for the links and clear info. as a geno 2 who has been virus free since week 4 i am inquiring for others who are not so fortunate like murari. as tx is so debilitating for many it is sometimes hard to take a second go at it when the chance of clearing is below 20%. as the new meds raise the chances of clearing and in a shorter time for tx things are looking up for geno 1 and i sure hope it wont be long for the g2 and g3 group to have a second chance. good luck to u halbev and best to u both, babs824

[halbev]

I am what they call relapse I went UND with a Quantitative test but not the Qualitative test and after 6 months it was coming back.
I am 56 years good health somehow ? Genotype 1a with 3rd stage cirrhosis and On triple therapy with Incivek,
Went UND at week 4 and on week 8 now, VL was 1,000,000 when restarted looking promising from this end.
With Incivek you have a better chance going UND as a relapse 86% so depending on if you relapsed or did not respond, and I was told Females respond better then Men by Incivek and I am male and it is working for me

[willbb]

Hey babs...there are so many factors that go into what constitutes success. ..be hard to go thru them all here..however a few things about what you asked..
Yes...Incivek and Victrelis are currently only approved for use for Geno type1"s.

In regards to hope for geno type 2 and 3. For quite some time now as you well know....the success rates for these have been approx 80   and 75% respectively  and usually with 24 weeks tx. so there doesn't seem to be as much put into experimenting (trials) than with Geno1

Having said that ..there has been , and currently are some active trials going on with these two types.

This new one everybody  is talking about (PSI7977 + BMS 790052 ) is experimenting with geno 2"s and 3"s as well as 1"s     and there was the PROTON 2b trial (Psi 7977 w/ Peg and Riba ) that I believe had 100% success with 2"s and 3's(albeit ,I believe there was only a couple of dozen patients.)

So...yes even tho just Soc has pretty good results with  2's and 3's there are trials going on to see if it can get even better.

As far as geno 1"s this seems to be were most of the experimenting is going on  (as it is approx 70% of the infections and the hardest to treat.

Vic and Inci..have upped the success (on an avg.) to approx. 66% to 86%  and that is dependant on all the factors you asked about above.

Prior relapsers in trilas had excellent response with both drugs and  prior partials somewhat less stellar and nulls less again(however still much better than doing SOC again.)

VL seems to have no bearing on success with these new meds..as we have seen posts here about very high loads clearing in a day or two and sometimes even hours

As far as damage..this still seems to be a factor considered  .... in trials chirrotics seemed to have somewhat better results with longer regimes  and  overall the stats were slightly  less sucsseful for this group(however still markedly improved over SOC)

IR  (insulin resistance) still seems to be a negative predictor ,,however not sure of the stats with the P.I.s   and you mention  age.......many doctors are still reluctant from what my own doc said to treat over 65"s   as they obviously have more complicating factors in regards  to age  tolerating therapy ( heart and others age related ) .Being 60 or so ..in itself  did not seem to factor in to the trials...other than (and it is just a guess on my part) being 60 for most would mean increased damage ..there fore possibly a somewhat less favorable result.

IMO the future looks very bright with all the new meds in trials.. new protease ,poymearse and the Ns5A inhibitors......it is just going to take time  :)

Sorry about the long winded answer but you asked a mouthful.....

Will

If you want to see the  exact trial results  on Inci and Vic:

http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ByAudience/ForPatientAdvocates/ucm255413.htm

http://www.centerwatch.com/drug-information/fda-approvals/drug-details.aspx?DrugID=1150

[babs824]

will; can u elaborate for those of us in the dark on the new stuff. what i gather is that geno 1 is all these new protease inhibitors are used for at this point? and that relapsers do better than non responders? and your chances to clear virus are not as good if u are older, maybe 60 yrs and if u have a high degree of damage as determined by a biopsy(not vl). am i getting this right so far. pre diabetes also works against u too i believe. thanks for clarifying this for me and others. babs824 ps do u know any thing about new hope for geno 2 or 3 non responders? thanks, b

[willbb]

That depends on many factors.....what geno type  what your status of failure was on the first attemt(null  or non -responder,or relapse)..what degree of liver damage(fibrosis) ,age ,and most importantly ,,what drugs would be used on the second attempt

Overall tho,,,with the use of the third drug(either Incivek or Victrelis) the odds of success improve   considerably.

Best to you
Will