My mom finished 12 weeks Harvoni/elevated liver enzymes!

[Oti23]

Hello guys,

I m posting here for my mom who just finished a 3 months course of Harvoni this week. To our surprise her ALT and AST are even higher then before she started this treatment!! Is this normal?
She had hepatite for 15 years  , 2 milions viruses and fibrosis grade 3, genotyp 1b.
She was doing ok during the tratment, not good but she didnt get those very nasty side effects i ve read here.

Before she started her values were ALT =125/ AST=150

1 month later dropped to ALT= 47/AST 57 at this point we started to feel relief.

Then after 3 months ...then BOOM...her ALT 180/ AST 187!!

We still waiting for results to see if she is virus free but the her doctor scared us alredy saying these are not good news and those values should have stayed low after the treatment it s over😑

I m feeling so guilty cause i ve got the pills for her (the expensive version)

Please can i hear if other people experienced this or if it s very unusual? She could be virus free? And sorry for my poor exprimation all this medical terms are new to me.

Wish health to everyone!

[Lynn K]

Hi Oti23 and welcome

There are a few things that can cause elevated liver enzymes but I agree this may be not a good sign.

I was a 3 time null responder to prior interferon based treatment and was infected for 37 years genotype 1a. I was diagnosed with cirrhosis after being infected for 30 years. All that made me more difficult to treat.

When the new meds were first approved and before Harvoni was, I treated with Sovaldi and Olysio for 12 weeks. My liver enzymes were only slightly elevated above normal before treatment as they had been for the 24 years I knew I was infected. My liver enzymes went to normal and my viral load was not detected on treatment. When I was tested 12 weeks after I finished treatment the first test result that came back was my liver enzyme tests and they were again slightly above normal which I took to be a bad sign. This was verified s few days later when I received my viral load test and learned my viral load was back to pre treatment levels of 2.4 million. So yes I had relapsed.

 The following month Harvoni was approved in October 2014. I started treatment in Nov 2014 with Harvoni for 24 weeks and we later added ribavirin For the remaining 15 weeks of treatment. This treatment was because of my prior treatment history and having cirrhosis. Fortunately it worked for me that time and I am now cured of hep C for almost 3 years.

If your mother has relapsed there are other treatments available. Most people have little trouble with treatment just an unfortunate few have more side effects so likely if your mom had a easy time this time she won’t have any difficulty next time unless they want to add ribavirin that does make treatments a little tougher as most people develop anemia which can make you feel tired and out of breath.

But with all that said you don’t know for sure she had relapsed yet. Fatty liver can also cause elevated liver enzymes as can a few other things. Hang in there and hope for good news. But even if it is bad news know that there are other options.

Not sure why you would feel guilty for getting medication to cure your mom of hep c. While it may not have worked for your mom the odds are very good at about 98% for most patients depending on their prior treatment history and health of their liver. But 98% is not 100% so sadly Harvoni does not work for everyone all the time but a heck of a lot more effective than the old interferon treatment at about 30% effective for genotype 1a.

Good luck

[gnatcatcher]

Oti23, even if if turns out Harvoni didn't cure your mother, it is not your fault. And it is not the doctor's fault (or anyone's fault) that about 2% of people who take Harvoni aren't cured. It just means those particular people are resistant to Harvoni.

As Lynn says, there are other medicines. And it's too early to know what caused the elevated ALT and AST. If it turns out Harvoni didn't cure your mother, her doctor will probably have your mother take a different test to learn more about her body's resistance. That will allow the doctor to choose a new treatment that should cure her.

Best wishes,

Gnatty

[andrew j]

Hi Oti23,

On the face of it, it does look as though your mother has relapsed.

It's difficult to know why this has happened, of course.
If I understand you correctly - you purchased the meds yourself - which is why you are now feeling guilty.
If this is true - it's possible that the meds were less than perfect - in which case another course of Harvoni might work for her.

(But it's also possible that she relapsed for any number of other reasons) ...

Your mom's doctor sounds pretty switched-on - so here's hoping s/he can get to the bottom of what's happened.

Other treatments are available for genotype 1bs - as the others have said.