which treatment

[RonDougherty]

How do I decied which alternitive to take aftef inter/ribo failed. The Dr said there is no other treatment he can give me . I am very close to F4. There is alot of testing going on out there, How do I know or should I even take a doctors advice at this point

[WriteItDown]

The trial of TMC435 for patients who failed previous treatment, (Phase IIb) which I believe I mentioned to the OP in an earlier post, lists only "decompensated liver disease" as an exclusion.  Close to F4 isn't decompensated cirrhosis, as far as I'm aware.  I don't think the OP should write off trials because of his stage.

[copyman]

I don't think many early stage trials will accept people with or close to cirrhosis. perhaps doing a maint dose of interferon or Infergen to give your liver a break until the new meds come out in about a year. seek the advice of a Hepatologist. best of luck

[can-do-man]

As Writeitdown said a trial might be your best bet, first find a good hepatologist, there are many your way. Being close to or even stage 4 does not exclude you from tx that i do know......... Flguy, and charm are two i can think of who are in south fl. Both tx and both are SVR....Best to you

[WriteItDown]

It seems to me your best bet at this point is to find a good clinical trial.

To that end, I would suggest you find a place near you where they do clinical trials, and see if you can get an appointment with a hepatologist there to explore the options.  Maybe someone else on the board knows of a place near you where this would be possible.  I don't live in Florida so I don't know, but a lot of people on here do -- you could ask if anyone in Florida did a clinical trial and where.

Perhaps your doctor is not tuned in to these and therefore doesn't know what to offer you or what to suggest --- but there are other doctors who do.  Seek them out, and good luck!