Infergen of retreatment of Hep C?

[1madman]

Is retreatment with Infergen realistic after failing one course of Pegintron/Ribavirin AND one very long course (80 weeks) of Pegasys/Ribavirin?  Should I wait for the protease inhibitors?  One month post treatment with Pegasys 180mcg and Ribavirin 1400mg (increased from 1200 because I kept bouncing between positive and negative), my viral load popped back up to 2.5 million.  After Pegintron, it took 6 months to get up to 2.2 million (that was when I tried Pegasys/Ribavirin).  I am concerned that with the rapid increase in the viral load, I may not have enough time left for FDA to get around to approving protease inhibitors.  Any ideas?  Any trials?  Thanks!

[sunshines76]

I think infergen worked for me (I still have 5 more months to see if I achieve SVR though...) Pegasys/riba combination didn't work for me, but I stopped that treatment around week 16. My viral load was low then however, and I switched to infergen without taking any break between the treatments. I was lucky to get UND by the 5th week on infergen. My doc said that I was lucky to get this result, as from his experience he didn't see many non-responders to respond to infergen as successfully as I did. So, if you can wait for PIs, if you can't - infergen is worth a try, you can always stop the treatment, right?

[Trinity4]

Viral load has nothing to do with whether you should wait for the PI's.  One of the most important things to consider when deciding whether you should treat with Infergen is degree of liver damage.  If you have advanced fibrosis as in compensated cirrhosis it may be worth considering Infergen, however, the odds of SVR with the PI's are around 75% for geno 1's and Infergen offers around 10% higher odds of SVR with retreatment.

Consensus Interferon can work well for those who do not maintain a favorable response from pegylated interferon but it is a very tough treatment.  In my opinion, your best bet would be to wait for the PI's if at all possible.

Trinity