Thursday September 30, 1:00 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Patients Newswire
Majority of Hepatitis C Patients Fail Initial Therapy; Facing the Decision of What to do Next
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- As many as 70-percent of patients treated for hepatitis C do not clear the virus from their blood. Even people who use the combination of Intron A and ribavirin (Rebetron, Schering-Plough), show a non-response rate of 50 to 60-percent, according to Tse-Ling Fong, M.D., Associate Medical Director of Hepatology and Liver Transplantation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Many patients will be in this situation soon since they started therapy last year.
They then face the decision of what next -- the same treatment again, another one, or wait. Dr. Fong says considerations are severity of the disease, and how the patient tolerated the previous therapy, including psychiatric symptoms, general physical well-being, and any suppression of bone marrow function, often a side effect of ribavirin. ''I want to emphasize that re-treatment in my view should be individualized,'' he says.
Patient advocate Liz Webb, founder of the Ask Emilyss Hepatitis C Info and Support web site and the founder of the United Foundation for Patient Humanities, agrees. The re-treatment decision should be based on ''evaluation, evaluation, evaluation,'' she says. ''Make sure that you know what your disease status is before you do anything else.''
The only drug regimen approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for re-treatment is Infergen (consensus interferon, Amgen), 15 micrograms three times a week. Dr. Fong says this regimen results in a 13-percent sustained response rate. Obviously, more research is needed.
Dr. Fong is conducting a multi-center study to evaluate more frequent dosing of Infergen, so called ''induction therapy.'' (For information on eligibility: 310 855-2610.) It will determine if induction therapy is helpful, if induction needs to go beyond 12 weeks, and how well patients tolerate it. Patients will start on 15 micrograms of Infergen daily for 12 weeks. Patients who respond will then be randomized - continuing daily therapy at the same dose, or receiving it three times a week. Dr. Fong says, ''We're genuinely trying to answer a very, very important question. And I think in the foreseeable future, [induction therapy] is going to be the direction of interferon treatment.''
For more studies on hepatitis C from recent medical meetings, go to highlights.wellweb.com, presented by wellweb.com
Patients Newswire is a service of Patients Network.
SOURCE: Patients Newswire
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