Hep C Alinia / Intereferon Update

[dodger01]

I posted a while back and you can read through my past posts but I wanted to give some very exciting news that I just recieved. I was on the Alinia / Interferon trial and completede my treatment about a year ago a was informed today that I am still undetectable and my liver count is in the normal range. This is the best news that I could have ever expected to get. I wanted to get on the board and share this with everyone. I hope all of you that are treating or thinking doing it try this treatment. I relapsed two times prior with Interferon and rebetron therapy but this seems to have worked. I wish ALL of you the very best and hope everyone gets cleared.

[St. George]

I have recently started on Infergen, Ribavirin, and Alinia.  I too have failed numerous past treatment.  Can you please tell me what genotype you were.  I am 1A and have had a real hard time taking the Alinia ( diarhea (diarrhea), naseau, etc).  Did you encounter any of these side effects and how long before they dissappeared?

                             Thank YOU

[St. George]

I have one more question.  Did you take the Alinia along with the Ribavirin  or did the study make you take it at seperate times from the Ribavirin?  The reason I ask is because I have been taking it along with the Ribavirin.

[dodger01]

I was a 1A and can't remember having any diarhea (diarrhea). I also failed treatment twice before using the Interferon and Ribavirin combo.
My last treatment, I took Alinia for the first three months and then added Interferon to the mix for six months and then did 3 months of Alinia by itself for a total of 1 year of therapy.
I can honestly say that the Alinia / Interferon treatment was much easier for me versus the Intereferon / Ribavirin therapy.
How are you finding the treatment thus far and are you seeing posative results?

[Myown]

Congratulations! Glad to hear that you are SVR.

Would you be so kind as to post the study that you were in because I thought the study was only done with g4 and even when I asked my doc if I could use the Alinia, he said the studies have only been g4 - and he is a leading hepatologist so I am very surprised that he didn't know about this study that you were in.

I would like to print it out and bring it to him - so please when you get time, I'd appreciate if you would post the info. Did they mention this study with at the recent Conference? I thought it was just the g4 they mentioned.

Thanks

[ladywhy]

Yes, please give us a link to this study. I am very anxious to get it over to my Hep Dr. I cannot believe that we/HR/ and te leading hep dr's in the nation are not aware of this study...
Thanks

[FlGuy]

Was ribavirin in the mix?  If so, in what segments of that treatment year was riba used?  Glad to hear the news!

[dodger01]

My doctor is in Tampa, FL and has patients who work for Romark labs in Tampa, FL. They told him about trial and he worked with Romark to get involved. My doctor is always looking into the treatments and I thank god for that. I was prescirbed the Alinia free of charge directly through Romark for the entire year. I do not have any url's on the trial that I can provide other then this article which I read when I was told I could get into the trial. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-10-2006/0004246208&EDATE= .

I did not take any Ribavirin during the trial.

My therapy was as follows:
Two tablets a day of Alinia for the first three months solo. The next six months combo therapy of Interferon 3 shots a week / Alinia twice a day, the next three months Alinia solo, total of 1 year.

This was like a stroll in the park for me compared to the Ribavirin / Interferon therapy.

I hope I have answered your questions and will be happy to answer anyone's questions because I truly care about each and everyone of you and understand how difficult this is to treat and live with. Be strong and I encourage all of you who have relapsed or are thinking about starting to look into the new treatment. I was starting to think I would never slay this dragon, but I did.

All the best....

[FlGuy]

Thanks for the info.  Another question, I assume that the interferon WAS NOT Pegylated like PegIntron or Pegasys?????

[mikesimon]

Congratulations on your fantastic news! And thanks for sharing you treatment protocol with us. It is a fascinating story. Good luck and stay well, Mike

[dodger01]

It was Pegintron...

[dodger01]

Thank you

[FlGuy]

Thanks for the reply.  PegIntron 3 X per week is no cake walk but the real bonus is the no riba.

[dodger01]

Thank you for the kind words...

[dodger01]

I totally agree with you. I guess the third time is a charm. How are you doing? Are you treating?

[FlGuy]

Not treating.  Did 24 weeks, relapsed.  Did 46 weeks (finished 9/07) which did the trick. Geno 3. Great to be done.

[dodger01]

Congratulations....

[dointime]

I looked up a previous post of yours - here's the link:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/95120

In that post you specify a dosing regime rather different to the one you describe in this post.  You also say that you are a genotype 2a.

So what's the real story -  Mr Dodger.

dointime.  

[dodger01]

Prior to posting I thought there would be people like you to attempt to try and poke holes in the posaitve information that I was so excited to share with evreryone that I enjoyed speaking with while treating. My wisdom was correct, there you are either mad or just looking for someone to attack. My apologies to the board by forgetting to type 2 instead of 1 but I guess that is why I told everyone to read my old posts so they knew the history. You could have asked in a manner that was constructive instead of your negative format. But like I said, I expected this and I feel happy for those that I can share with but will refuse to answer any negative respones by people like you.

By the way, you handle speaks for itself!

Have a great evening!

[evangelin]

Hi,
I'm so happy for your success and have hope that this will help my husband also.  
Can you help me understand how the 3 shots of pegintron a week work?  Does this mean  that it was done the old way they administered  the interferon or was it the one shot a week variety done 3 times?  I hope I'm not asking a dumb question as I have been known to do that from time to time :>)
Blessings,
Ev

[dperry10]

I would like the info on who you doctor is.  I am in the Tampa area as well. Just finishing up 48 weeks as of Thanksgiving, and looking for plan B if this test comes back positive.  

My GI I had was here in Brandon and was not so knowlegable on it , it appears, and now has disappeared.   But would be interested in knowing who he is.  

Thank you,

Dana

[dodger01]

Ev,

My therapy was as follows:

Two tablets a day of Alinia for the first three months solo.

The next six months combo therapy of Interferon 3 shots a week / Alinia twice a day,

The next three months Alinia solo

Total of 1 year.

I hope this helps, not sure how all of this works together but it worked this time.

[dodger01]

I will be happy to give this information to you but let me think about the best way to get this to you other then posting on the net for privacy reasons.

[dperry10]

you can go to my profile and send me a private message.  

[dodger01]

I just sent you my doctor's contact information. Best of luck, he's a great person....

[dperry10]

Thank you for the info.. I replied back to you message.   I will wait to see what the test tells me and go from there.  I appreciate the info.  So are you geno1 or 2 ?  was confused by responses above from doingtime and your reply.

[Libzo]

Thank you so for sharing your journey and final destination.  You give us so much hope and strength.  You are a Warrior and I salute you.

[ladywhy]

I actually thought you were pullin' my leg (so to speak), especially regarding geno 1...that is ffantastic news!
Congratulations!
This seems like the light at the end of a very dark tunnel for many of us slow responders, relapsers, etc., etc.
Thanks!
y

[gauf]

It seems strange that they had you on alinia solo for 3 mos pretox because like riba, alinia is thought to be affective as an adjunct!?  Seems to me the virus could have mutated a defense during that time and the alinia would become less effective. I really, really wonder what their reasoning was for this!  Also, what was the dosage of the pegintron at 3x a week and how were the sides?

Congratulations on a successful Tox!

[dodger01]

2a

[dodger01]

I wish I knew there reasoning but followed I there instructions. I watched my diet and excerised as much as I could. I drank lots of water and cranberry juice. 80mg with little to no sides but some soreness in the morning after the shots. Maybe I just got used to the shots from my two previous attempts to clear. Funny thing is, I was scared to death of needles prior to treating and now I have no fear :)

[Myown]

Thanks alot, appreciate the info!
Congrats again!!!!

[jmjm530]

Well, first I want to say congratuations! It must be gratifying to have finally gotten ridden of the virus on the third time.

That said, I really don't know how much more we can make of this without actually looking at your trial results. Do you think it possible you can ask your doctor the name of the trial and for a link to the complete results?

I'm a bit puzzled not only because of the protocol -- non-pegalayted interferon and no ribavirin -- and the fact that Alinia is now being trialed with Pegalayted Interferon and Ribavirin. You would think that if a previous trial showed riba not to be necessary, then they would not have added it.

Perhaps you're simply one of the lucky ones that defied the odds.

All the best,

-- Jim

[jmjm530]

Sorry, misread, it appears you did take a Peg -- PegIntron.

No disrespect meant, but could you please again clarify your dosing and genotype. I also re-read your previous post (last year) and there you state quite specifically (twice) that you took ONE injection a week "...1 injection with 80mg Pega Interferon on Saturday night to give myself Sunday to relax.".

Again, it would really be helpful to all of us if you could ask your doctor to supply us with a link/reference to the trial you participated in.

Thanks.

-- Jim

[Teufelhunden]

I was reading reports of Alinia and indeed it looks very promising. If I'm reading them right, Alinia has been used successfully on geno 1a's and 2's as wells as 4's. Virtually no side effects is probably the icing on the cake!  Your treatment regime included 80mg Pega Interferon? Was that a drop from the standard 180mg because of the Alinia? Great news Dodger! Definitely going to take that info with me when I go up to Duke. Thanks for posting.

[dointime]

Yes, I would also like a reference to the trial that dodger allegedly did.

I looked at the Romark press releases going back to 2005 and only found one reference to a hepC trial, dated long after november 5th, 2006, the date of week 13 of dodgers trial according to his previous post, so this could not have been the trial dodger did.:

"Romark Initiates Clinical Trial of Alinia® for Chronic Hepatitis C in the United States
Press Release: August 15, 2007
Romark Laboratories announced that it has initiated a phase II clinical trial of Alinia® (nitazoxanide) for treating chronic hepatitis C in the United States"

There's only been one other trial done with Alinia as far as I can find from my research and that one was in Egypt for genotype 4's:

"Comments: AASLD 2007: In a study of 96 treatment naive and 24 treatment experienced HCV genotype 4 patients in Eygpt receiving triple therapy of nitazoxanide, pegylated interferon, and ribavirin, 79% achieved an SVR 12 weeks post treatment. Future studies are being planned in HCV genotype 1 patients. December 14, 2007)"

So come on dodger.  If you are such a genuine guy then give us the ref. to the trial you did.

dointime  






  

[orleans]

Hey, What exactly are you reading? How about some links. I was not aware that there aws any info on Alinia and geno1s. thanks, jerry