A second try at hep C treatment likely offers an excellent chance of success at a cure.

Researchers analyzed data on more than 3,300 people treated with interferon-free hep C regimens. A total of 192 people in the group failed eight to 24 weeks of hep C treatment, including 151 with genotype 1 of the virus, two with genotype 2, 26 with genotype 3 and 11 with genotype 4.

Among the 14 people with available data on their treatment outcome at this time, 93 percent of those with genotype 1 and 100 percent of those with genotype 3 were cured after re-treatment. Initial signs look good that the remaining set of those re-treated will have high cure rates this time around.

“Re-treatment may work very well with currently available [hep C treatments],” says Johannes Vermehren, MD, an assistant professor at the University Hospital Frankfurt, Germany, and the study’s lead author.