i am in a trial that is triple therapy. it is standard of care with extra blood testing. many of our members have had good success with trial, others have not. can you tell us about the trial? are there any other drugs in addition to peg/interferon? what is the purpose of the trial?
eric
There are pros and cons to entering any drug trial. Often the biggest benefit is the one you would seem to be taking advantage of..that there will be no cost to.
As Eric asked..... can you tell us what are all the drugs involved as possibly some here are in or have been in the same or similar trail. and can speak more to the benefits and risks
Welcome to the group..
Will
Good luck in the trial. I'm in a Gilead trial now. Didn't work as planned so I'm in the rescue arm now with PEG, RIBA, and a few other drugs. My advice is to do as much research here and elsewhere on trials and get advice and ask as many questions of your Doc as possible. You need to feel secure. Keep us posted.
Clinical trials can be a great way to cover expensive treatment and expensive drugs. What you need to do is evaluate the details of the trial and see if the amount of risk to the success of your treatment is an acceptable risk to take. There is always an element of risk in a trial, some more, some less and it's relative to your own particular circumstance.
Ribavirin and Interferon are not new drugs so there has to be some sort of angle they're testing OR there's another drug in the mix. You want to look at what the dosages in the various arms are, what your chances are of getting those dosages and how it relates to potential success of treatment and how you feel about the risk factor if you don't get the arm you want.
If there's a trial number you could post, that would be helpful, as the details will most likely be on clinicaltrials.gov. Otherwise, other useful details is what are the dosages in each arm and what are they testing for. Not all trials are suitable and some trials could limit your opportunities at future treatment options so you have to take the time to understand what it means to enter any trial.
Good luck with all this.
Trish