Interferon dosage

[Paul Campbell]

I was diagnosed with HCV last year and was prescribed 5 million units of
Intron A 3X/week. Instructed to use the whole vial which was as much as
7 million. That knocked me on my ass so I injected as much as I could
tolerate and still function - 6 million. After > 3 months of private
hell the therapy was DCd due to increased virus levels. Everything I
have read indicates 3 millon units is the recommended dosage. Confused
and concerned.

[Kaavi]

hoa aloha....
how is everyone???
I am replying to the dosage of interferon, I started with 3MIU TIW, but they
increased me to 3MIU,Five days a week, so I guess the Doctor can choose can
give ya what he wants, but then again, I alsi have DIP, an interstitail lung
disease a rare thing, that the interferon seems to be helping, side effects are
hard, but I sick anyway, so I don't know if this helps you or
not...........keep always a smile in your heart and a dream upon your
wings.......aloha oe Kaavi
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/8749

[Joe21943]

3 million is a common dosage. However when it doesnt work higher or more
frequent doses are often prescribed. Doctors have different preferences too.
Joe
Joe Reardon
joe2...@aol.com
joe2...@bellsouth.net

[TCallahan]

Dear Paul,

I'm sorry that you had to discontinue therapy because of the side
effects. I understand that they can be very hard to deal with.

Paul, I wanted to say something about the interferon dosing protocals.
The standard interferon or Rebetron dosage is 3miu 3 times per week.
This dosing schedule with interferon monotherapy has been very
innefective. Now, when interferon is used in combination with
ribavirin, (Rebetron), at that dose (3miu 3 times per week) the
percentages of sustained response are only slightly increased. This
standard dosing schedule, although still be prescribed regularly - is a
dinasour. No nicer way to say it.

Doctors are finally beginning to understand the nature of RNA viruses.
They mutate and replicate very very quickly. Interferons only last a
few hours in the body, they are effective for about 7-8 hours in the
human body after injection.

Now that the doctors understand that RNA viruses mutate very quickly -
they are learning that they need to give patients higher doses to
effectively prevent mutation and replication of the virus. The doctors
are also figuring out that if they maintain a steady level of interferon
in the body (daily dosing) they can increase the chances of sustained
response or clearance of virus from the serum. Finally, doctors are
also learning that longer treatment regimens are more effective because
it takes longer to clear the virus from embedded cellular tissue than it
does from serum. It is good to remain on treatment at maintenance doses
for at least a year after you are undetectable.

This theory of mutation and replication is one of the variables that
have lead to the development of the pegylated interferons. These are
interferons that are bound to PEG and act as time release medications.
They are testing these peglyated interferons in clinical trials all over
the country. The expected release and FDA approval of these peglyated
interferons is sometime in the year 2000. I hope this gave you some
insight into the whole dosing thing. Take Care. Theresa.