Gene Predicts Hepatitis C Treatment Success

U.S. researchers found that genes in hepatitis patients could determine how the disease could respond to the treatment.

People with certain gene variant are far more likely to respond well to the treatment when compared to others.

Tests that predict the presence of that particular gene variant could be used to decide which patients are more likely to benefit from hepatitis C treatment. The findings may also explain the racial disparity in hepatitis C treatment response.

“This discovery enables us to give patients valuable information that will help them and their doctors decide what is best for them,” genetics researcher David Goldstein of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, said in a statement.

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne liver disease that can lead to chronic liver problems, liver cancer, cirrhosis and death. The virus affects an estimated 3.2 million people in the United States alone and 170 million worldwide.

Read more at Reuters