New studies show a recently approved drug for Hepatitis C doubles the cure rate of the standard treatment. We discuss the new treatment, and the disease that affects nearly four million Americans and is linked to about 12,000 deaths a year.
Host: Dave Iverson
Guests:
Natalie Bzowej, director of clinical viral hepatitis at the California Pacific Medical Center and principal investigator on the clinical trials that led to the approval of the new Hepatitis C medication
Orlando Chavez, Hepatitis coordinator at the Berkeley Free Clinic
http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201106240931
Widow Questions How Vet Caught HCV in Vietnam War
Dear Sgt. Shaft: I want to know why the military did not send out information to all Vietnam-era veterans asking them to get checked for ...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/28/sgt-shaft-widow-questions-how-vet-caught-hepatitis/
Online Chat and Webcam Used to Instruct on Injecting Hepatitis C Drugs
ITSRx is an online specialty pharmacy that dispenses drugs for serious and chronic diseases like cancer, hepatitis C and multiple sclerosis. Many of the medications have to be injected, which means the retailer's customer service agents often have to assuage the concerns of those new to the drugs.
For years the retailer handled those requests via e-mail, phone, mail or fax. But last September it launched both a webcam-based video chat and a text-based live chat program. The video chat service gives customers the option of scheduling one-on-one private consultations via webcam with ITSRx pharmacists. A customer, for example, can show the pharmacist how he is injecting the needle to see if he is doing it correctly. Or he can talk with the pharmacist about drug interactions or side effects.
http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/06/30/customer-service
Over 75 Percent Cured of Hep C with Incivek
A new antiviral drug that recently won federal approval to treat hepatitis C can effectively cure most patients of the infectious disease, which for more than 20 years has been notoriously difficult to treat, according to two studies released today.
Roughly 80 percent of patients with the most common strain of hepatitis C and who had either never undergone treatment before or had suffered a relapse were cured when they took the antiviral Incivek in addition to the standard drugs, according to one study led by researchers at California Pacific Medical Center and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
That is a marked improvement over the previous treatment, which cured less than half of those patients. Most patients in the study were able to stop treatment after 24 weeks instead of the standard 48 weeks - a significant change, because the drugs can have brutal side effects.
"This is going to change the field of hepatitis C dramatically," said Dr. Natalie Bzowej, a liver disease specialist at California Pacific Medical Center who was a lead researcher in the study. "The treatment may not be easier, but it does have a higher chance of cure. And side effects are a lot more tolerable if you have them for a shorter period of time."
What 'cure' means
Hepatitis C is a viral infection that is transmitted through the blood, similar to HIV. Like HIV, it has long carried a stigma that can prevent people from being screened for the virus or seeking treatment. Patients are considered cured of hepatitis C when the virus is no longer detectable in their blood, but it is possible for traces of the virus to remain, and people may have relapses.
About 4 million Americans are thought to be infected with hepatitis C, although public health officials believe 75 percent of them don't know it. New cases of hepatitis C are decreasing year to year, but Baby Boomers are thought to be a large reservoir of the disease. They were more likely than other generations to have been exposed to the virus, through anything from intravenous drug use in the '70s to blood transfusions in the '80s, when the nation's blood supply was much less protected.
Risk of liver cancer
Hepatitis C typically affects only the liver, and symptoms often don't become apparent until liver damage has started. One in 10 people infected with hepatitis C is able to lose the virus without any medical intervention. The remaining people have chronic hepatitis C, although about 80 percent of them will never suffer serious symptoms.
But in up to 20 percent of chronic patients, hepatitis C causes severe liver damage and can lead to liver cancer. The infection kills about 10,000 people every year in the United States, and it's the leading reason for liver transplants.
"You're talking about a disease that affects millions of people, and now we can more than double the response rate to medication. This is a very big deal," said Dr. Joanna Ready, chief of gastroenterology at Kaiser Santa Clara, who handles all of the hepatitis C cases there.
Incivek and an antiviral called Victrelis were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month to treat people with the most common strain of hepatitis C. Both drugs are used in conjunction with the previous standard treatment for hepatitis C.
Difficult therapy
That treatment is a toxic cocktail of weekly intravenous chemotherapy drugs and an older antiviral that patients took for at least 48 weeks - if they could tolerate the side effects, which included flu-like symptoms, anemia and depression. The treatment didn't reach the hepatitis C virus specifically, but boosted the patient's immune system to help it fight off the infection.
But the treatment was effective only about 46 percent of the time, and if people underwent the drug therapy once without success, their chances of a cure if they tried again were slim - only about 5 percent if the earlier treatment didn't work at all...............continue reading........
Smartphones used in life-saving procedures
LONDON, Ont. - Scalpel . . . Check. Sutures and sponges . . . Check. Smartphone . . . Check.
Smartphones may become a must for London surgeons sent to retrieve organs for transplant surgery after a Blackberry Bold was used to secure a liver for a patient dying in London.
The clock was ticking when two London surgeons and a transplant co-ordinator from London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) were dispatched out of town to remove a liver from a middle-aged man who had sustained brain death from a head trauma.
Days earlier, a 56-year-old man with hepatitis C had been taken to a London hospital with his liver failing, joining a waiting list that for some becomes a death sentence because they die before an organ is found.
On a scale of 1 to 40, with 40 being the most severe liver failure, the man rated a 34.
"This was a person who was very sick with significant liver failure. A not insignificant proportion of people die waiting for a transplant," said Dr. Kris Croome, a surgeon developing expertise transplanting livers, a specialty area for London surgeons who transplant about 70 livers a year.
Croome was joined by a more senior trainee, Dr. Jeff Shum, and a transplant co-ordinator, Michael Bloch.
Back in London, transplant surgeon Roberto Hernandez prepped the hepatitis patient for an operation -- the doctor had to be ready to go when the liver returned because a liver is generally useful only within six to eight hours of being removed.
The retrieval team operated on the brain-dead patient, removed his liver, only to find a 6-cm. lesion that could be cancerous or otherwise make it unsuitable for an organ. They phoned Hernandez, asking if they should return with the liver or cancel the operation and hope another organ became available.
Had a smartphone not been used, Hernandez would have likely had to cancel the transplant. Instead, he directed Croome and Sum to take a series of photos that were e-mailed back to London. Each image prompted further surgical investigation of the lesion and together they allowed Hernandez to give a green light to the operation.
A year later, the hepatitis patient is alive and doing well.
The work of the London team is garnering attention after an account was published in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare. And London transplant surgeons are seriously considering making smartphones required equipment for surgery.
"It had worked so well we should put that out there," Croome said.
A smartphone was also used a month ago to help rule out the use of a liver, saving a patient in London from enduring the start of an operation that would have to be cut short.
"The current case illustrates how smartphone technology can be an invaluable tool in performing real time consultations," the London team wrote in the journal.
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/sciencetech/archives/2011/07/20110702-091929.html
Cirrhosis risk score predicts fibrosis progression in HCV
The latest Journal of Hepatology investigates role of a cirrhosis risk score for the early prediction of fibrosis progression in hepatitis C patients with minimal liver disease.
Fibrosis progression in patients with chronic hepatitis C is highly variable.
A Cirrhosis Risk Score (CRS) based on 7 genetic variants has been recently developed for identifying patients at risk for cirrhosis.
Dr Eric Trépo and colleagues assessed the role of the CRS for the early prediction of fibrosis progression in chronic hepatitis patients with mild liver fibrosis.
In addition, the research team evaluated the potential benefit, for prediction accuracy, of a recently described non-invasive fibrosis staging assay, the Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF) test.
The research team retrospectively analyzed separate cohorts of HCV patients.
Only patients with a fibrosis Ishak or METAVIR score of F0–F1 at baseline were included.
The Cirrhosis Risk Score was associated with fibrosis progression
Journal of Hepatology
The researchers classified patients as progressors if they showed an increase 2 fibrosis stages at the second histological evaluation after a follow-up of 5 years.
The Cirrhosis Risk Score was calculated locally. Genotyping was performed by PCR and oligonucleotide ligation with the resulting signal detected with a Luminex® 200TM and computer analysis.
In Brussels, 48% of patients progressed.
Similarly in Hannover, 52% of patients progressed.
In both sample sets, the Cirrhosis Risk Score was significantly associated with fibrosis progression.
The team noted that the ELF test was only a significant predictor in Hannover.
On further analysis, the researchers found that the Cirrhosis Risk Score remained the only variable associated with fibrosis progression.
Dr Trépo's team concludes, "Although conducted on a limited number of patients, this study in 2 independent centres confirms that the Cirrhosis Risk Score predicts fibrosis progression in initially mild chronic hepatitis C."
http://www.gastrohep.com/news/news.asp?id=108147
Outcomes of adult living donor liver transplantation
This month's issue of Liver Transplantation compares the adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation cohort study with the national experience.
Dr Kim Olthoff and colleagues from Philadelphia, USA determined whether the findings of the Adult-to-Adult Living Donor Liver Transplantation Cohort Study (A2ALL) reflect the U.S. national experience.
In addition, the team defined risk factors for patient mortality and graft loss in living donor liver transplantation.
A2ALL previously identified risk factors for mortality after living donor liver transplantation, which included early center experience, older recipient age, and longer cold ischemia time.
The team evaluated living donor liver transplantation procedures at 9 A2ALL centers, and 67 non-A2ALL centers from 1998 through 2007 in the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients database.
The team identified potential predictors of time from transplantation to death or graft failure.
There was no significant difference in overall mortality between centers
Liver Transplantation
The research team observed no significant difference in overall mortality between A2ALL and non-A2ALL centers.
Higher hazard ratios were associated with donor age, recipient age, serum creatinine levels, hepatocellular carcinoma or hepatitis C virus, intensive care unit stay or hospitalization versus home, earlier center experience, and a cold ischemia time more than 4.5 hours.
Except for center experience, the team found that risk factor effects between A2ALL and non-A2ALL centers were not significantly different.
Variables associated with graft loss were identified and showed similar trends.
Dr Olthoff's team commented, "Mortality and graft loss risk factors were similar in A2ALL and non-A2ALL centers."
"These analyses demonstrate that findings from the A2ALL consortium are relevant to other centers in the U.S. performing living donor liver transplantation."
"Conclusions and recommendations from A2ALL may help to guide clinical decision making."
http://www.gastrohep.com/news/news.asp?id=108149
Pharmaceutical
.
Frequently Asked Questions About Ghostwriting
Few topics are more contentious than ghostwriting - the mysterious practice in which an article lands in a medical journal with the names of various authors who, as it turns out, had little or nothing to do with the substance of the publication. The issue has caused several scandals for several drugmakers and medical journals, causing embarrassment and turmoil... continue reading....
The Op-Ed: Pharma Should Not Be Run By Finance
Control of Pharma Operations by Finance: Sign of a Declining Industry
At the same time, the weekly drumbeat of scandals involving off-label marketing, ghostwritten and fudged studies, Medicaid fraud and slanted promotions take their toll - the cost of defending prosecutions and paying fines, as well as eroded public confidence
By Daniel Hoffman, PhD and president of Pharmaceutical Business Research Associates
It is no secret that pharma is going through a rough decade. Over the past ten years, the industry has lost $1 trillion of capitalization. Some equity analysts even suggest that pharma company shares would trade at higher multiples if they labeled themselves as consumer products companies that just happen to run pharma operations. According to one report, this year alone, pharma will lose control over more than 10 blockbusters with combined annual sales nearing $50 billion. And next year, meds with another $44.6 billion in annual sales will lose patent protection.
As top-selling older products fall off the table, compounds in the pipeline show scant potential for replacing these lost revenues. In fact, industry productivity at pursuing its lifeblood mission - developing new compounds that substantially advance the standards of care - has steadily declined. Over the past decade, an annual average of 30 applications for new molecular entitites have been submitted to the FDA. This is down from 45 submissions during 1996 and reflects a 9 percent to 11 percent annual decline that has occurred for some time.
According to equity analysts, this slow pace has created a qualitative change to the point where “research is no longer a core competency.” While the R&D slowdown offers customers fewer compelling reasons to buy new products, payors around the world are also showing ever-increasing resistance to paying the premium prices demanded by branded drugs.
At the same time, the weekly drumbeat of scandals involving off-label marketing, ghostwritten and fudged studies, Medicaid fraud and slanted promotions take their toll - the cost of defending prosecutions and paying fines, as well as eroded public confidence. More important, they have caused many industry customers to try shutting down communication channels that pharma uses to differentiate its brands. Medical specialty societies have been limiting industry-sponsored CME, while medical schools and teaching clinics restrict access of their physicians to pharma’s sales reps.
So amid this perfect storm, how has the industry responded? For the most part they’ve addressed the matter in three ways: cutting R&D, laying off experienced people and raising prices. In a less-is-more approach to new drug development, many big drugmakers have reduced R&D spending - between 2009 and 2012, Pfizer will have cut spending by 9.2 percent, AstraZeneca by 11 percent, GlaxoSmithKline by 11.6 percent and Sanofi by 8.7 percent.
Then there are layoffs. In an economy beholden to short-term horizons, manufacturers are managing according to the trends of their quarterly earnings and/or net income. In line with that imperative, pharmas continued their bottom line growth by cutting SG&A, principally through staff reductions. Last year, pharma led all commercial sectors in terms of the absolute number of layoffs. Only government and non-profits put more people onto the streets.
While layoffs during hard times are inevitable in a private enterprise economy, an ability to raise prices during the worst recession in 70 years is not. Over the last several years, pharma exercised this cartel prerogative by virtue of patent protection and regulatory entry barriers. In 2010, the industry raised drug prices an average 6.9 percent, following a 6.6% increase the year before.
Yet the sure sign that pharma has not figured a way out of its quandary is not the shrinking volume of new products or the apparent lack of well-defined strategies for a changed environment. That indicator appears in the fact that pharma has defaulted its operational management to finance.
As manufacturing executives, finance people possess neither the scientific and technical acumen of R & D, the creative touches of marketers or the people skills of sales. Perhaps to make these shortcomings appear less obvious, the finance wizards have worked through their henchmen in human resources to systematically eliminate people with extensive knowledge of the industry and its functional operations.
People over age 50, many with hard-earned wisdom, have been shown the door and replaced by 30-year old, business school graduates. With due allowance for exceptions, many of the latter have been miseducated to believe that they can manage all commercial entities, regardless of the industry, with spreadsheets containing the same formulas and ratios.
In their cognitive framework, concepts such as strategic sense, historical tendencies and the intuition borne of experience don’t even exist because insights from those sources have not been adequately quantified and stated in graphic form. Numbers constitute their only reality. As managers, finance people deal in measurement without substance and data without context.
At a time when business research can point the way to new concepts, product lines and organizational approaches, finance managers disdain such insights. Instead they decree that managers in marketing, managed care and other functions should eschew insight and consider business research a commodity function. Finance thereby empowers its hatchet men and women in the purchasing department to select proposals from larger suppliers that offer volume discounts in preference to discernment.
This mismanagement by finance is evident in the extent to which many pharma departments are handcuffed to so-called preferred, value-preferred and agency-of-record suppliers. In the last of these arrangements, finance and/or its purchasing functionaries deploy their blunderbuss wisdom by selecting the most frequent or costliest engagements that a particular department has outsourced during the previous year.
Then they approach one of the largest suppliers of that service and offer them a monopoly to perform one or more of these common/expensive functions in return for an annual cost guarantee amounting to 10 percent to 15 percent below the previous year’s cost. In this manner, research on customer needs and competitor planning becomes equivalent to buying pork bellies or soybeans.
An example appears in a memo that the “vice-president for customer insight” at a big pharma sent to all of his 120-plus charges earlier this year. With a subtlety capable of hitting the broad side of a barn, this VP admonished his supervisees to only use the Preferred/Value Preferred vendors by congratulating them on their subservience the previous year. Their compliance during 2010, in his words, “secured over $250,000 in Value Preferred vendor rebates! These cash rebates directly impact our bottom line.” He then extended “a special thanks…to [redacted]’s team. In 2010, her team had the greatest percentage of their overall spend go towards Preferred Agencies and Value Preferred Agencies — 89%! Nice work Immunology/Arthritis/(overactive bladder) team.”
Although this approach to managing a research-driven business is unsettling, some may question why it indicates an industry in decline and not just pharma during the current down cycle. Their answer may lie in looking to historical precedent. For the most part it, this supports the claim that clueless industries turn to finance management. A recent example comes from the US auto industry, a sector that effectively extended its down cycle for almost 40 years before crawling into bankruptcy.
Consider the recollections of Bob Lutz, an executive who spent 47 years in various auto industry positions, including the presidency of Chrysler and the vice-chairmanship of General Motors. In an excerpt from his memoir, “Car Guys vs. Bean Counters,” Lutz describes a growing obsolescence that overtook the US auto industry by the 1970s. Detroit’s physical plant was older than those of the Japanese, its legacy costs for health care and an older workforce were higher, and the Big Three remained unable to break their dependence on large gas-guzzlers.
“Faced with this environment,” Lutz writes, “General Motors embarked on a series of initiatives to overcome both the perception and reality of the growing import threat.” The common factor in these various palliatives was the decline of what Lutz calls the ‘product guys’ and the ascendancy of finance people.
The finance-dominated culture that came to rule Detroit actually held little regard for cars or customers. Both were seen as merely the incidental means of obtaining financial processes that provided the purpose and satisfaction of the business. According to Lutz:
(The finance culture created a) generalized consensus that we were, after all, primarily in the business of making money, and cars were merely a transitory form of money: put a certain quantity in at the front end, transform it into vehicles, and sell them for more money at the other end. The company cared about “the other two ends” - minimizing cost and maximizing revenue- but assumed that customer desire for the product was a given.
It remains too early to speculate on whether pharma at some point will also require a government bailout. The fact that industry operations presently remain under the thumb of its own finance management, however, brings to mind some dialogue from an Ernest Hemingway story, where one character asked another how a third character went broke.
“Two ways,” came the answer, “first gradually and then all of a sudden.”
http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/07/the-op-ed-pharma-should-not-be-run-by-finance/
Healthy You
Don’t wait until it’s too late to know more about your liver
Recent studies show that one out of 10 Asian Americans are chronically infected with hepatitis B and may not even know it since there are no symptoms in the early stages of the disease. Experts estimate that there is approximately 1.4 to 2 million individuals who are chronically infected with the disease in the United States today. It can lead to liver failure and cancer.
Researchers Dr. Naoky Chih-Su Tsai, Dr. Howman Lam, and Dr. Philip J. Suh, sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb, gathered at the Waikiki Edition Hotel for a “Chronic Hepatitis B Awareness” press conference on June 29. The purpose of the event was to educate the community about chronic hepatitis B disease, how it affects peoples’ livers, how the virus spreads from person to person, and disease prevention.
Dr. Lam, a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Hawaii Medical Center, the Hawaii Academy of Physicians and a senior associate at Queen’s Medical Center in Hawaii, said, “there is no symptom of chronic hepatitis B. That’s why it is a very dangerous disease.”
Part of the problem is people can be carriers of the disease and not know that they have it or that they need treatment for it to not pass it on to others. Dr. Suh, an internist and a holder of Pediatrics Board Certification, added, “there is always a misconception that hepatitis B carriers think they are fine and do not need to receive any treatment before it is too late.”
According to recent studies, 15 to 40 percent of people with chronic hepatitis B develop serious liver disease, including liver failure, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. Experts say men are up to three times more likely than women to get liver cancer.
“There are misconceptions that a simple kiss, hug, breathing the same air, or dining together are causes of chronic hepatitis B infection,” said Dr. Chih-Su Tsai, the medical director of the Liver Center and Liver Transplant Program at Hawaii Medical Center East, a professor of medicine at the University of Hawaii, and a UNOS certified transplant hepatologist.
“In fact, most of the cases are infected by their mothers because the disease is transmitted only through blood and other bodily fluids,” Dr. Tsai continued.
Dr. Hong Tang, host of the event, also a fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP) and a director of Viral Hepatitis US Medical at Bristol-Myers Squibb, emphasized the importance of prevention and encouraged people to make sure they have received proper immunization.
“Everyone should have received immunization when they were first born,” added Dr. Lam. “We only have to get three shots within six months in general. But that can be 99.9 percent prevention from getting chronic hepatitis B infected in our lifetime.
“However, if a baby is infected by his mother, he will have to receive an additional shot to kill the virus first before receiving the vaccination,” Dr. Lam said.
Dr. Tang said the additional shot the baby needs to receive “is called Hepatitis B Immune Globulin (HBIG). But that only works for newborn babies. If you are old enough to be a college student, you should go to see doctor and double check it before you feel sick.”
"However, if you are not infected by your mother, there are also other ways to prevent [getting the disease]. In fact, those preventions can be means of transmission if you do not handle them carefully," Dr. Lam continued listing some of the precautions people should take. “Only use sanitized needles for any drug injection or blood donation, take extra care in handling blood products, and do not share tooth brush and shaver with other people. Remember chronic hepatitis B has no symptom. But it can lead to liver cancer.”
The four doctors, including Dr. Tang, reminded people that most of the patients do not have any symptoms before they are in the last stage of liver cancer. In fact, liver cancer is the No. 1 cause of death in China today, according to Dr. Tsai.
“It’s your liver. Take charge now,” is a new motto the doctors hope people will follow.
http://kealakai.byuh.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3998&Itemid=78
Red Meat Increases Risk of Liver Cancer
Summary
This study examines the relationship between meat consumption and the incidence of liver cancer and chronic liver disease mortality. Nearly 500,000 people were included in this questionnaire-based study, of which 551 had developed chronic liver disease and 338 had developed liver cancer by the end of the study. White meat consumption was inversely related to the incidences of both chronic liver disease and liver cancer, while red meat consumption increased the incidence. Thus it may be said that red meat and saturated fat increased the incidence of liver diseases and cancer.
Introduction
Cancer of the liver is the third most common cause of death among overall cancer-related mortalities. It has been known that certain toxins, excess alcohol, and hepatitis virus cause liver cancers and chronic liver diseases. However, liver disorders have been reported even in the absence of the above factors. Recently, red meat has been associated with the increasing incidence of liver cancer. Excess saturated fatty acids in the diet are a risk factor of liver cancer and red meat is a rich source of these fatty acids. Not many studies have investigated the consequences of dietary factors leading to liver cancer. Although many studies have investigated white meat and liver cancer risks, the data on red and white meat influencing chronic liver disorders, is incomplete.
Methodology
A total of 495,006 participants, aged between 50-71 years, took a survey in the year 1995-1997. The questionnaire focused on dietary habits and cooking styles.
The total incidence of liver cancer was ascertained from state cancer registries and the incidence of chronic liver disease was assessed from the National Death Index Plus records.
Further analysis was done by classifying the participants, based on the meat consumed, content of fat intake and risk of cancer or liver disease.
Results
Males consumed more red meat than the females and it was more common among the white non-Hispanics. Men were also found to more frequently use alcohol and cigarettes and consume less fruits and vegetables.
There were a total of 551 deaths from chronic liver diseases and 338 incidences of liver cancer.
White meat consumption was inversely related to chronic liver disease and liver cancer occurrences. But results were opposite with red meat. The hazard ratio for occurrence of chronic liver disease was 0.52 for white meat, whereas it was 4.0 for red meat.
The risk of red meat inducing liver diseases and cancer were escalated on including fat intake, especially saturated fats. Nitrates and nitrites were found to increase the incidence of both liver diseases and cancer.
Shortcomings/Next steps
This study failed to consider the incidence of hepatitis in the participants. The diet of the participants was assessed once and a food frequency questionnaire was used, which, being reported by the participants, could have errors. Pre-existing liver diseases and cancers were not assessed in the participants. The authors suggest the inclusion of details on hepatitis virus infection in future studies.
Conclusion
It is clearly shown, in this study, that red meat consumption could increase the incidence of chronic liver diseases and liver cancer. Also, saturated fats are associated with increased incidence of both the above, irrespective of whether present in red meat or white meat. There was no association found between liver cancer and compounds formed while grilling meat. Red meat like beef, pork, lamb and veal could increase the risk of liver cancer. In fact, saturated fats, which form a major portion of red meat, could make it a higher risk element. Thus, it could be better to consume more white meat like chicken, turkey, and fish, which have less saturated fat content.
For More Information:
Read more at FYI Living: http://fyiliving.com/research/red-meat-increases-risk-of-liver-cancer/#ixzz1QxYW21l5
New On The Blog; Worth A Look
Lawyers and Doctors Agree: Hepatitis C is Likely Curable; Telaprevir-Incivek, Boceprevir-Victrelis
Emerging therapies for hepatitis C offer a significant increase in SVR and bring treatment complexity
Educational Webcast and Video Podcast of a selection of presentations of the AASLD/CDC SINGLE TOPIC CONFERENCE - Chronic Viral Hepatitis - Strategies to Improve Effectiveness of Screening and Treatment
To view these presentations you must register, the process is quick. During the registration when in doubt type in "none" to proceed. Once you begin to view/hear the webcast click on "Presentation on the sidebar to view slides and data". This is worth the effort folks.
From HCV Advocate;
July 2011
HCV Advocate Newsletter
In This Issue:
The New HCV Epidemic?
Alan Franciscus, Editor-in-Chief
Quick Facts about the PI's
Alan Franciscus, Editor-in-Chief
HealthWise: Resisting Resistance
Lucinda K. Porter, RN
HCV Snapshots
Lucinda K. Porter, RN and Alan Franciscus, Editor-in-Chief
The Next Wave(s)
Alan Franciscus, Editor-in-Chief
No comments:
Post a Comment