Warning! Think twice before you use DAA treatment.

In our last post, we brought up the recent findings on extreme liver cancer growth after successful DAA treatment. We are talking about liver cancer of a few centimetres developed within weeks of successful Hep C treatment. These findings are also observed in patients of Gastroenterology. Dr. Roushdi Khalf allah said, “That is a real observation I also faced with my patients in Egypt.” [1]

We have also received a number of comments and enquiries from readers who have experienced the same problem mentioned. Many people found this result shocking. This indicates the extreme growth of liver cancer does exist in patients and more importantly, not enough patients are realizing the post treatment risks.

The cause of extreme liver cancer growth

The cause of this extreme liver cancer growth is still unclear at this moment, doctors and researchers can only confirm that this type of cancer growth in patients with hepatitis C and cirrhosis is abnormal by saying “A 30% rate over 3 years from initial surgery or ablation is normal. What was surprising to us was that we were observing 4 cm lesions after 12 weeks.” [1]

Lead investigator Stefano Brillanti, MD, from the University of Bologna, Italy said that "The hypothesis is that immune surveillance may be reduced too rapidly”. This means that the sudden reduction in virus count and immune surveillance might be the reason behind the growth of abnormal liver cells into large cancers. In another words, he is suggesting that while DAAs can eliminate the viruses, they might have negative impact on your immune system, allowing cancer cells to grow freely.

No warnings from doctors, yet.

AASLD (American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases) has already begun asking patients to have regular check-ups to closely monitor liver status even after successful treatment.[2] Most doctors also recommend patients to go back for regular monitoring. But at this stage, it seems that not many doctors realize the potential risks and undoubtedly they are not giving enough warning or information to potential DAA clients.

Will everyone get it?

Although an increasing number of cases are being reported as more patients have received treatment in recent years, it seems that the percentage of patients that will go on to develop extreme cancer still remains relatively low. More concrete figures should be available as more research work is carried out.

Would you take the risk?

The big question here is that if you are currently considering treatment, should you go for it? Considering the drawbacks such as the high cost of treatment and uncertain potential risks, the wise move for now might be to allow more time for research and studies and wait for clearer information to become available.

During the wait, it is important to control liver health and liver function. By preventing inflammation and damage caused by hep C virus, liver injury can be prevented and hep C patients can live a healthy life without undergoing anti viral treatment.

If you worry about anti-viral treatment or would like to know more about how to maintain healthy liver function and living in harmony with hep C, please send your questions to our support team.

Reference:

Disclaimer:

* All research and clinical data should be used as reference purposes only, results may vary.

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