You're right, I'll find out next week if the treatment failed me or
not. My physician said if my viral load comes back "none detected"
(which is what I'm hoping for) then I will do another 24 weeks. This is
all totally out of my hands, so I'll just live with however things turn
out. I know eventually there will be other treatments - maybe not as
brutal as the one I've been on! But in the meantime I'll be fine and
who knows, maybe my test will be "none detected"!

I did have a biopsy pre-treatment which came back Grade 3, Stage 2.

It sounds trite, but you don't/didn't fail treatment, treatment fails you.

For genotype 1s on the 48 week treatment plan, the SVR rate for those that
haven't cleared the virus by the 24th week is very low. While the treating
physician may attempt a "Hail Mary" by continuing therapy for the full 48
weeks, the statistics are what they are, which is very poor.

There is a different treatment scheme being used by some docs for g-1s that
had an unsuccessful round of conventional therapy, which basically is a course
that lasts 48 weeks from the point the virus is *cleared*. So, assuming you
tested clear at 24 weeks, you'd go another 48 weeks (yeah, it sounds brutal
from here, too).

Did you have a liver biopsy pre-treatment? Do you remember the grade/stage? If
the staging is moderate or lower, it's possible there will be alternatives to
the Peg/Riba combo in a few years that you can wait and see how they
progress...

/greyhackles

Hi - My viral load went from over 2 million to 1100 after 12 weeks of
treatment on Peg-interferon and riba. Now I'm at 24 weeks and I just
had my viral load tested again. I haven't gotten the results back yet,
but my physician said if it's "none detected" I will continue the
treatment for another 24 weeks, but if there is virus detected we will
stop treatment (apparently that is the protocol for the drugs now). Has
anyone else been told that? I am genotype 1a (which I  know is the
hardest to treat). As much as I don't want to do another 24 weeks of
treatment, being sick and tired, I would rather deal with that then
have feel like I failed the treatment. And if I "fail" treatment, then
what?

is not detectable. In your case now, the virus is undectable -- the lab
test cannot give you a better result than that!

"Undetectable" means the viral load in your blood is somewhere between
zero and 60 (or 600 or whatever). I guess that because the viruses are
so small that they essentially cannot be seen unless there are a bunch
of them, that the laboratory can't say for sure if the viruses are
entirely gone or not. All they can say is that they cannot see the
viruses, not even using their fancy, expensive, RNA-muliplying PCR
tests. Thus, it certainly appears that you have cleared the virus.

But science advises it would be premature to say the virus is gone for
good at this stage. There could still be some hiding out somewhere, and
the numbers therefore could be multiplied to detectable levels again.
Consequently, the most accurate conclusion is a simple statement of the
facts: The lab could not detect any virus in your blood serum.

Do you have a cure today? Of course not. What your really have, from
the statistical perspective (for genotype-1 patients such as yourself)
is what they call an Early Virological Response (EVR).

An EVR is a "virological response" because the virus has *responded* to
the battle by suffering an apparently total destruction. It is "early"
because" the response was attained *early* in treatment -- which is
defined for geno-1 as within the first 12 weeks.

Because patients who attain EVR prove more likely to attain the
hoped-for SVR in the long run, your lab results are good news. If you
started out with a 50-50 chance for attaining an SVR, then I think your
chances are now improved to be better than that, based on the available
research statistics and the fact that you have an EVR.

If the virus stays undetectable, then that will mean that somewhere
along the line you cleared it. Right now it appears from your labs that
you already cleared it, but the scientists caution us to understand
that we cannot be sure yet.

I'll say this for sure: When I got news of my EVR, I couldn't believe
it. At that time I was sure it was all some mistake. It took several
weeks for me to finally accept that I might be beating this thing after
all -- I think its the drugs. They are killing the virus, but they also
kill my spirit and my hope sometimes. Its a tough road to walk, but its
good to pay attention to those numbers when they are telling you that
things are looking pretty good.

Best wishes,

BG

My Dr left a message on my machine about my 12th week blood test. She
said that the count is less then 600 which is considered undetectable
(yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) but I read here that ppl are clearing the virus
completely so... this is a bit confusing to me. Is less the 600 enough
or do I need to be at 0. Well, the great thing is that because I am
considered undetectable, I can start counting my weeks till I am done
which means I have approxiamtely 45 weeks to go. She also said she is
still waiting for the "false negative" test to come in. I have no idea
what that is, I assume it means the virus is too low to be detected,
yes? So it would just be confirmation on the VL test. What if it comes
back positive? What does that mean?

Ally