HepC Treatment & Enbrel Treated Psoriatic Arthritis

[I_Will_Clear]

Anyone who is being or has been treated for HepC (Peginterferon & Ribavirin) who has been--and continues to be-treated for Psoriatic Arthritis with Enbrel?

Last week, I was diagnosed with HepC, Genotype 1a, Stage 2, Grade 2.  I've been taking 50mg/week of Enbrel for 6 years, and the Enbrel is a godsend.

I'm wondering how the PA and/or Enbrel fare with HepC Treatement.

Thanks in adance for your response.

[I_Will_Clear]

I am in the process of looking at the NCBI database, in PubMed.

I ran a search for "Hepatitis C" and "Psoriatic Arthritis."

It looks like there may be additional information since 2005--although perhaps not on that specific topic mentioned by PortAnn.  I'll let you know if anything arises.

Thanks for the link into that resource.

[I_Will_Clear]

Thank you so much for your responses and this information.  It is very helpful.

[jmjm530]

It's one of the few powerful anti-psoriasis drugs on the market that is OK for the liver. Psoriasis and PA can flare significantly on treatment so that would not be the time to stop taking Enbrel. That said, Enbrel is an immunosupressive drug so its interaction with inteferon is still unknown and only one older study I'm aware (posted above) that has not been followed through. PortAnn has a very good point because newer treatments could limit your exposure to interferon by one half and interferon is the problem with psoriasis and  PA.

-- Jim

[portann]

Since you only found out last week about your HCV, you owe it to yourself to do some research on your options for treatment.

Some stage two's prefer to treat right away but some opt to wait carefully in the hope of shorter and better treatments. This is a very personal decision but is better made with information and reflection rather than plunging in. Underlying health problems can sometimes be exacerbated during and even after treatment.

[mikesimon]

"Zein NN; Etanercept Study Group.

Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. ***@****

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Current therapies for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) do not achieve sustained viral clearance in most patients, and are associated with severe toxic effects. Our aim was to investigate the efficacy and safety of etanercept as adjuvant to interferon and ribavirin in treatment-naive patients with HCV. METHODS: Double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled trial. Fifty patients with chronic HCV were randomly assigned to receive interferon alfa-2b and ribavirin with either etanercept or placebo for 24 weeks. The main outcome measure was the absence of HCV RNA at 24 weeks, the on treatment response at the end of the etanercept randomization period. RESULTS: At 24 weeks, HCV RNA was absent in 63% (12/19) etanercept patients compared to 32% (8/25) placebo patients (P=0.04). In addition, patients receiving etanercept had lower frequency of most adverse events categories compared to placebo. CONCLUSIONS: Etanercept given for 24 weeks as adjuvant therapy to interferon and ribavirin significantly improved virologic response at the end of the etanercept randomization period among patients with HCV, and was associated with decreased incidence of most adverse effects associated with interferon and ribavirin."

See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15791697

Mike