This is numbers / percentage questions. I've been wondering how the stats for sustained remission are done.
Does anyone know what percentage of people with a hep C diagnosis attempt treatment within a few years of the Dx?

Of this number what per cent are actually able to complete treatment?

Do the stats for percentage for successful treatment include those who have to drop out of treatment for both nonresponders and/or those who quit for various other reasons.?

alice

The simplest thing to remember is that the stats reflect a highly selected population of people, and that the ultimate response rates are for people who completed the treatment.

About 20% of those highly selected people in clinical trials drop out of the trials due to unforeseen (and they try to foresee as much as possible to get the numbers) intolerability or adverse events and, rarely, death.

The definition for sustained remission at this time is an undetectable PCR test at six months after treatment.

I note for your informaiton that the drugs stay in your body about six months after discontinuing treatment.

Newer technology is also finding "detected" results where older technology was "undetected." Read newer studies that use TMA technology for the end of treatment responses for the best data. A "Qualitative" test at the end of treatment will be more accurate than a "Quantitative" test.

I hope this helps,

thanbey

Thanbey

Thanks for you info. I also heard of a study of all genotypes which showed a replase rate as high as 40%.

In a study involving 300 people, divided into 3 groups of 100 each with differing combinations of drug and time, it was concluded there could be a reduction of relapse rates to 15% using interferon-ribavarin treatment of 18 months.

I'm not sure if the meaning of repapse means the relapse rate was within the first 6 months after finishing treatment or after the 6 months of being virus free.

Alice

Thanbey

Thanks for you info. I also heard of a study of all genotypes which showed a replase rate as high as 40%.

In a study involving 300 people, divided into 3 groups of 100 each with differing combinations of drug and time, it was concluded there could be a reduction of relapse rates to 15% using interferon-ribavarin treatment of 18 months.

I'm not sure if the meaning of repapse means the relapse rate was within the first 6 months after finishing treatment or after the 6 months of being virus free.

Alice

"relapse" means there was a report of being free of the virus--"undetected"--at six or more months post treatment, and then at some later time, virus was again detected. Relapse, in other words, can by definition occur only in cases where there was a sustained viral response in the first place.

Otherwise, if a person never achieves classification as a sustained viral responder, there would be nothing to relapse from. A non-responder is counted differently, in other words, from a relapsed responder.

They are both equally unhappy, though, I am sure.

Extended tx has indeed been tried for relapsers or non-responders, and there are trials now of maintenance interferon as well. This would be interferon extended for years, perhaps for life. This approach is only suitable, of course, for people who suffer few or minor side effects, or whose life is otherwise in danger, or both. In my view, anyway--I realize that I don't know how the tx criteria are being applied in each lab or medical center.

We don't know as yet whether extending the tx beyond current guidelines (48 weeks for type one, 24 weeks for 2, for the most common examples) actually improves the odds of clearing the virus, although it sure might. And, we don't know yet if the extended tx results in improved liver health (histology).

Hope this helped answer your questions.


sean