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Stage one Hep. C - wait or treat

I was happy to find this forum. Trying to read about Hep. C, and was lost since there are so much information. I was diagnosed with Hep. C genotype 1 in May 2007. The treatment supposed to take up to one year, and I decided to have healthy life, and don't take treatment. I didn't do biopsy. This year I did ultrasound showing my liver was good. Anyway  I went to a doctor who advise me to have a liver biopsy. Today I got result that I have fibrosis stage 1. I will be discussing with my doctor my options next week, but from her email I understand that she  reluctant to treat me.
From my reading I find out that there are more new medications coming next few years, with less side effects. And I am thinking it make sense to wait. At the same time I am getting older, in few days I will be 57, and may be will harder to treat.. Please help to make decision what to do?
ML
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Avatar universal
In my opinion, your doctor does not want to treat you for the same reason my doctors through the years did not want to "treat" me.  The treatment is extremely harsh for, what is turning out to be, most people.  It is also good medical care under certain circumstances to take a watch and wait approach; assessing the patient periodically for indications that the liver disease has progressed and thereby requires the treatment despite its harshness.  

At this point in time it is probably excellent medical advice to encourage a patient to wait if their condition merits it and to continue to evaluate periodically.  If this is the doctor who referred you for biopsy as well as any other needed blood test, he or she is doing the right thing.  Not every problem requires immediate intervention but many problems, such as Hepatitis C do call for thorough assessment.  Once you have gone through a benign treatment at some point in the future, your liver will likely heal itself even from that degree of fibrosis.  Livers tend to do that.

I am not necessarily recommending that you do the same as I, however I wil invite you to read my journal blog in which I outline my involvement in a clinical trial with what it is hoped will become standard treatment in a few years.  At present there is no virus detectable in my blood.  I am continuing to treat because a viral "cure" is not declared for 6 months after the dosing stops.  This is called "sustained viral response" or SVR.  Nevertheless, my liver is even now repairing itself (I have maintained a fibrosis score of 0 to 1 all these years).

In my case, I had the infection for 40 years I believe.  I was diagnosed 20 years ago from biopsy.  Interferon was the only medication available at that time.  The doctor supported my wish to refrain from treatment.  Through the years, several moves to different locations brought different doctors who all dutifully periodically checked me with ultrasounds, blood tests etc.  When newer tests became available I would undergo further assessment.  As more knowledge of my condition became available to me, I became increasingly aware that I had made all the right choices.  If I had chosen to undertake treatment at an earlier point, I may have very likely compromised my career, experienced nasty side effects, given up my "treatment naive" status and have been no better off with a Hepatitis type unresponsive to interferon.  

Follow your intuition about this situation until the evidence is overwhelming that you really should treat immediately and continue to assess with your doctors encouragement, as needed.  If you have already determined not to treat now in any case, they may not give you more expensive tests right now but a genotyping is helpful as well as a Il28b pending the results of the genotyping for future reference.  

One more thing.  Try not to let your anxiety get the better of you.  This is a fearful business and anxiety is the HepC patient's worst enemy at times. It can propel people to take actions or refrain from actions that history proves are regrettable.  Best of luck to you.
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Avatar universal
All she has to do to go to your page is CLICK on YOUR NAME which appears above every one of your posts. I've never clicked on "people" at the top of the page. That's a real long way to get there.

Mike
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Avatar universal
First you click on "people" at the top of the page.  Then you type in my name curiouslady1 in the block on the right.  Then you click on my name to get to my site.  Then you scroll down and you can see the posts and journals on the left.  It is the same for everybody and for you too!  Enjoy.
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Avatar universal
Dear Willbb,

Thank you for taking time to share your ideas and knowledge with me. I agree that probably new drugs are coming to the market with less side effect, and I may wait to have a treatment.

Thanks again
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Avatar universal
Dear curiouslady1,

Thank you so much for your comments! Your information was very helpful. I never thought that the trial treatment would be a good option of treatment. I always was thinking that the treatment under trial is unknown, and probably could have unknown  side effects. But of course there are advantages to try something more advanced than excisting treatment.
I have a question for you: Where can I see your journal blog in which you outlined your involvement in a clinical trial?

Thank you again for your time and information!!
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Avatar universal
I don't know if you are in Beaverton or in Portland (or in some other city in Oregon), but my brother in law had Hep C, HCC, and later a successful liver transplant at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.  I believe they partner with Kaiser.  Given that, I'm sure there must be a Hepatology/Transplant Center there.  I don't know if that is close to where you live.  We are in Seattle and husband is being treated by a hepatologist at the University of Washington Medical Center in their Medical Services/Transplant Center department, and his care has been excellent.  So far as I know, my brother-in-law's care at OHSU in Portland was excellent.  As others have said above, it is a very individual decision that you will need to make, whether to treat now because of your age, or treat later because your liver damage is mild.  My only recommendation is that you consider consulting with a hepatologist before you decide.  My husband progressed from F1-2 to beginning Cirrhosis between 2007 - 2010.  His first Hep C treatment was with a Gastroenterologist, and when he had to discontinue at Week 12 due to partial response, she said, come back and see me in 3 years, you have time to wait.  We came back in 3 years to learn that his fibrosis had progressed fairly fast in those 3 years to become Cirrhosis.  That is when we transferred to the care of a hepatologist at the UW and he is now in his third round of treatment due to partial response to first two.
Good luck with your decision.
Advocate1955
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408795 tn?1324935675
That's a very tough call.  I suggest if you decide to tx that you look for a clinical trial site in your area and bypass Kaiser altogether.  That would be the route that I would take.  A clinical trial site has a vested interest in making sure they do everything possible for your success.  That said, some trial arms are specific so you want to absorb as much information as you can.  Also, you may want to wait and just learn about HepC for 90 days or so and make a decision then.  good luck

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/?ui=D006526&recruiting=true

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