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Date Posted: 12:54:05 04/30/02 Tue
Author: Susie
Author Host/IP: bgp425870bgs.union01.nj.comcast.net / 68.36.197.75
Subject: Dr Poynard from NY Times

April 30, 2002

Therapies: Drugs May Repair Liver Damage
By JOHN O'NEIL




A new study of hepatitis C suggests that available treatments may reverse some of the liver damage from the disease, at least for younger patients.

Four million Americans are thought to be infected with the virus that causes hepatitis C, and the disease is the leading reason for liver transplants.

The study, published today in the journal Gastroenterology, reviewed data from 3,000 patients in four clinical trials. The researchers, led by Dr. Thierry Poynard of the University of Paris, found that cirrhosis — tissue death and scarring — had been reduced for half the 153 patients whose liver damage was confirmed by biopsies before the study began. In an e-mail message, Dr. Poynard described two-thirds of the reductions as "very clinically significant." The patients who did better tended to be younger than 40, with cirrhosis in relatively early stages, he said.

The drug treatment — a combination of pegylated interferon alfa-2b and ribavirin — has been shown to slow the progression of hepatitis C. But doctors have debated whether all patients should be treated, because the disease often progresses slowly, not all patients incur severe liver damage, and because the drugs are expensive, have significant side effects and do not always work.

Dr. Poynard wrote in the message that the new results suggested that treatment might lead to more promising results, at least for patients under 40 with limited cirrhosis. "We thought that cirrhosis was nonreversible," he said. "What we observed is that fresh cirrhosis is probably reversible."

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