RESEARCH - Genetic discovery may improve hepatitis C treatment

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Genetic Discovery May Improve Hepatitis C Treatment

Finding will help predict patient response to therapy, researchers say

Posted August 17, 2009

MONDAY, Aug. 17 (HealthDay News) -- The first biomarker that predicts

a patient's response to hepatitis C treatments has been identified by

U.S. researchers.

The new marker is a single letter change -- a C instead of a T -- in a

segment of DNA near the IL28B gene, according to the Duke University

Medical Center team. They found it by studying the DNA of 1,671 people

taking part in a study of hepatitis C treatments.

Not only does this biomarker predict who is most likely to respond to

treatment and who isn't, it may solve the long-standing question of

why responses to hepatitis C treatments vary so widely among racial

and ethnic groups.

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Read the full article here:

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/08/17/genetic-discovery-\

may-improve-hepatitis-c-treatment.html

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