Typically, treatment for hepatitis C comprises at least 48 to 50 weeks of intense intravenous chemotherapy — a mixture of potent antivirals and immunosupressive agents that is as unrelenting on the patient as it is on the virus. This treatment modality even takes into account that the patient is otherwise healthy and free of other significant systemic illness. Hepatologists often have to use serial invasive mechanisms (principally liver biopsies) to monitor treatment progress, adding insult to patient “injury”.

It is also known, albeit for reasons that are still largely unknown, that certain demographics — generally racial ones — determine the degree of treatment success. Now, scientists have taken a step in the direction of predicting treatment outcomes before antiviral chemo has even begun. It all has to do with the way a patient’s genetic code is “read”. This information would then be used by patients and physicians to choose the most appropriate therapies — many of which are apparently safer, but still in development. | LINK

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