Talking of treatment, European approvals just announced are going to have a small impact on treatment in some cases. If you have genotype 1, a low viral load, and are starting treatment with PegIntron (not Pegasys, at least at present,) then you need to be aware of the changes. Those that achieve ‘undetectable’ status at four weeks can reduce treatment duration to 24 weeks instead of the usual 48 weeks. This is a lot less of an ordeal than before, and gets exactly the same results.

By way of Martins Blog, you know the one you need to put on your *must* read list.

Its not possible to link directly to Martins individual articles [I think] so in case it slips down the page here is a link to what I assume to be a copy of a press release with the relevent info. Short version below.

Shorter Course Combination Therapy Approved in European Union for Certain Hepatitis C Patients

Schering-Plough Corp today announced that the EU Commission has approved revised dosing instructions allowing for a shorter 24-week course of Pegitron and Rebetol combination therapy among a subgroup of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1 and low viral load (less than 600,000 IU/ml) who have achieved rapid virologic response, defined as undetectable virus (HCV-RNA negative) at week 4 of treatment that is maintained through week 24……Approval of this shorter combination treatment regimen cuts by half the duration of therapy for a subset of hepatitis C patients with genotype 1 and low viral load.

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