TOPIC:

I found this online:

www.hepmag.com/blog/hepatitis-c-treatment-svr

More than 9 out of 10 people will be cured using the current treatments for chronic hepatitis C virus infection. It is thrilling to be told that hepatitis C is no longer detectable in your blood. However, as much as we yearn for those words, sometimes it takes a long time to believe that hepatitis C is gone forever.




The medical term for a successful hepatitis C treatment outcome is sustained viral response (SVR). Undetectable HCV for 24 or more weeks after the end of treatment is an SVR24. Recently, many studies use the term SVR12, meaning that hepatitis C is undetectable for twelve or more weeks after the end of treatment. For those of us had a hard time believing that being viral-free for 24 weeks meant we were cured, then 12 weeks felt unbelievable. Can we trust this?




For most of us, yes. In the January 2015 Hepatology, Eric Yoshida and colleagues reported that there wasn't much difference between an SVR12 and SVR24 among hepatitis C patients who were treated with regimens using sofosbuvir. It didn't matter if interferon was part of the regimen. Analyzing data from studies using sofosbuvir, researchers looked at response rates for genotypes 1 through 6. There were a total of 327 genotypes 1, 4, 5, 6 (mostly genotype 1); 294 genotype 2s; and 250 genotype 3s.




Results

Before presenting the results, there are a couple more terms that are important to understand:

•Relapse was defined as having a negative hepatitis C viral load (HCV RNA) at the end of treatment and subsequently having detectable HCV RNA above the LLOQ.
•In this case, LLOQ is lower limit of quantification, which is the lowest amount of virus that can be precisely counted.

SVR24 was achieved in 777 of 779 patients (99.7%) with SVR12. This means that everyone but two people who achieved an SVR12 had an SVR24. Here's the kicker: the two patients who didn't achieve an SVR 24 both had genotype 3 (both non-cirrhotic, treatment-experienced). Therefore, if you discarded the data for genotype 3 patients and counted everyone else, 100% of those who had an SVR12 had an SVR24. Using viral sequencing, these cases were relapses and not reinfection.

Thanks GF that's good to hear, especially for someone who has just had their blood pulled for SVR12.
Fat lady is clearing her throat.
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This is more reassuring news and the link is a welcome read. Good topic as in my experience the flow on from EOT even from SVR12 to SVR24 continues in my psyche.

For the number crunchers:
A 4 week post treatment undetected VL (SVR4) is 98.2% predictive that the person will obtain a SVR12 (cured). A SVR12 is 99.8% predictive that the person will obtain an SVR24 (the old standard for a cure).