Jim/Willing Pulse Therapy?

[geterdone]

Jim you had posted a link to nymark (for which I did not want to intrude on his thread) about the possibility of doing a Pulse Therapy in hopes to knock down the remaining viral load, are there any studies or research available on this subject at the present time other than the link that was posted?

jasper

[geterdone]

Thanks for the reply, it sound like something I had just completed but in a miniature duration just before ending this standard treatment in which it is my 48th shot was tonight. A little scary but if it works and holds I consider the reward out weighed the risk but if it does not hold for me as an individual treater there was nothing lost and the outcome would have been the same, a **** shoot.

jasper

[jmjm530]

Couldn't find much published, but pulse therapy might -- or might not - be covered here. In any eventy for 55 bucks you can find out and FWIW I've spent a lot more on dead-end articles but also found some with useful value: Of course, we would expect a free synopsis if you spring for it :)
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cdtid/2003/00000003/00000003/art00004

[jmjm530]

It is described thus on his bio in that  I posted in the other thread:

"His other interests involve pulsed or controlled therapy interruption to modulate host immunity to Hepatitis C."

From what I know, it would probably best be categorized as "experimental" this point, and as of two years ago, still no SVRs although he apparently had one patient UND for four months post EOT. No idea on future data.

The way it was explained to me is that you start SOC and test VL weekly. As soon as you are UND, you stop the drugs. That is pulse number 1.

You continue testing weekly and do not start the drugs again until you test detectible. Then you start the drugs again which would be the beginning of pulse number 2.

You then continue pulsing until a pre-determined number of pulses or in theory when you remain UND. Again, remaining UND (SVR) has not happened yet, but the work may continue with the addition of other agents -- be it PI's, Alinia, vaccine, etc, -- to try and make it work.

Again, just to be clear, this was in an experimental stage when I heard about it, and I'm certainly not recommending it to anyone, however I found the concept fascinating because in a sense -- assuming he can find the missing ingredient to make it work -- it individuals treatment to the immune system response with only the amount of exposure necessary for a given individual.

My suggestion to anyone interested, would be to do more research and possibly contact the doctor, who as mentioned works in the same group as Dr. J. in NYC.

Jasper -- specific to your question -- I don't believe pulse therapy was intended to be used at EOT as with Mark, but more as a tx approach. Still, for some reason it popped in my mind given Mark's very low VL, his proximity to the doctor and all he has been though -- because one benefit of pulsing is that it gives the patient rest periods from the drugs and therefore hopefully a kinder type of tx.

-- Jim