Hi gang.  This summary is from a large Canadian study, published in July.
They retreated geno 1,2 and 3 relapsers and nonresponders with combo tx.
Some of the patients were only treated for 24 weeks (?!) and the Ribavirin
dose was only 800 mg daily(?!).  "When data were analysed by genotype, SVR
rates were 24% (61/253) in genotype 1 and 47% (28/59) in genotype 2/3."  I
am a geno 1 relapser.  Should I try to retreat?  Ugh. Long odds.  I will
ask my doc in a few weeks.  

kj
reporting the news

Peginterferon alfa-2a (40KD) plus ribavirin in chronic hepatitis C
patients who
failed previous interferon therapy.

Sherman M, Yoshida EM, Deschenes M, Krajden M, Bain V, Peltekian K,
Anderson F,
Kaita K, Simonyi S, Balshaw R, Lee SS.
Gut. 2006 Jun 27
Toronto General Hospital, Canada.

BACKGROUND: The management of patients with chronic hepatitis C who have
relapsed or failed to respond to interferon-based therapies is an
important
issue facing hepatologists. AIMS: We evaluated the efficacy and safety of
peginterferon alfa 2a (40KD) plus ribavirin in this population by
conducting a
multicentre, open-label study. PATIENTS: Data from adults with detectable
serum
HCV RNA who had not responded or had relapsed after previous conventional
interferon or conventional interferon/ribavirin combination therapy were
analysed. METHODS: Patients were re-treated with peginterferon alfa 2a
(40KD)
180 microg/week plus ribavirin 800 mg/day for 24 or 48 weeks at the
investigators' discretion. The study was conceived before the optimal dose
of
ribavirin (1000/1200 mg/day) for patients with genotype 1 was known. The
primary
endpoint was sustained virological response (SVR), defined as undetectable
HCV
RNA (<50 IU/mL) after 24 weeks' follow-up. The analysis was conducted by
intention-to-treat. RESULTS: A total of 312 patients (212 non responders,
100
relapsers) were included. Of these, 28 patients were treated for 24 weeks
and
284 for 48 weeks. Baseline characteristics between non-responders and
relapsers
were similar although more non-responders had genotype 1 infection (87%
vs.
69%). Overall SVR rates were 23% (48/212) for non-responders and 41%
(41/100)
for relapsers. When data were analysed by genotype, SVR rates were 24%
(61/253)
in genotype 1 and 47% (28/59) in genotype 2/3. CONCLUSIONS: These "real
world"
results in a large patient cohort demonstrate that it is possible to cure
a
proportion of previous non-responders and relapsers by re- treating with
peginterferon alfa 2a (40KD) plus ribavirin.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstra
ctPlus&list_uids=16709661&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum