Any Experince with consensus interferon

[Salah_K]

My doctor and I are thinking of using this type of interferon daily for a period of 1 year. This would be my 3rd treatment. The first two treatments were with peg-interferon! The consensus is not aviable in Holland and we might have to import it from Japan. I was wondering if you are aware of it and if any one have experince with it. Please let me know.

[sunshines76]

Good luck with your treatment!
Also, should you still be interested in more info on infergen, check out this link: http://www.infergen.com/pdfs/counselingflipchart.pdf

[Salah_K]

I will surely keep you posted and share my experince with you. Thanks for your kind words of support. You will hear from me as soon as I start.

[evangelin]

Oh boy!  That is really good news.
Hope it goes well for you,
Ev

[portann]

Way to go or at least that's the way I would go if given a choice!

Keep us posted.

Best wishes,

Susan

[Salah_K]

Dear all,

Thanks for your response and sharing your experince with me. My doctor is now offering me to participate in a trial with a new polymerase inhibitor; triple therapy which will might be more effective than consensus-interferon/ribavirin. I will hear from him at the end of Sept. I appreciate sharing your info with me and others who might find this interesting.

[evangelin]

My husband has used it twice but unfortunately still was a non responder.  The last time he used it, he was on TX for 15 months and approx half (the last half) was Infergen .  The started on Pegasys but switched when they couldn't get him undetectable.  Well, it isn't bad at first but it sure has a wearing down effect in the long run.  I think they all do actually.  Joe's hgb was extremely low despite lots of Procrit so he felt quite bad the whole time.  I'd have to say Pegasys was the easiest for Joe to take but maybe if he had started with Infergen, he would have shown a better response up front.  The daily shots just become a part of life...not a great life :>) but a life.  What about waiting for the Teleprevir to put with it.  If Joe gets to try the Teleprevir, they will probably prefer to give him Infergen to start with this time.  If you are able to wait for Teleprevir, I sure would.  You don't want to give up a good year of your life for nothing.  The last TX failure was Joe's 3rd try too.  
I wish you the best.
Ev

[sunshines76]

I finished my 12 months of daily infergen (15 mcg) 2 weeks ago. I am still anemic, my blood values are very low. I stayed between 8 and 9 on hgb for most of the treatment, but managed without procrit. Drinking lots of water and spending hours a day outside walking in the park helped me feel better, although there were days when I felt completely wiped out. Lost a lot of weight, but no problems with thyroid, according to tests. The only side effect that I really had to deal with was having some brain fog moments during the last 2 months of treatment. Daily shots didn't bother me at all, I was doing them on my thighs and belly, alternating sites every day. Became UND by week 5, still am UND. Now waiting for my 3 months and 6 months post-tx PCRs. Hopefully, it worked.
I did 16 weeks  of weekly pegasys prior this tx, did not respond to pegasys. As far as sx - for me infergen wasn't worse than pegasys.

[Trinity4]

A former member Deb_c430 treated with peg twice and failed.  The third time she did 72+ weeks of Infergen and is now SVR for about a year and a half I think.  It was a very difficult treatment for her but if you know Deb she's one tough gal and made it through quite admirably.  Her blood values dropped very low and she was on Neupogen and Procrit throughout most of her treatment.  During treatment the fatigue was quite bad but she is healtly now and does not suffer from any long term post treatment side effects.  
I'm a relapser and if the PI's don't hit the market by next year, I will seriously consider treating with Infergen myself.

Trinity

[susan400]

I've had previous experience with Infergen on more than one occasion.  I was on maximum dose of Infergen daily for a good chunk of time.  Unfortunately, for me, I did not clear, but I have a very resistant strain on the Hep because I've treated with everything and have not been able to clear. So, please don't let my experience discourage you any.  I agree w/pennylanem injecting daily does get old and all, but on the flip side, I think you probably have a more consistent level of medication in your system than injecting just once a week w/the Pegs.  That's just an opinion, no science behind my opinion that I'm aware of at least.  Susan400

[pennylanem]

I'm on week 8 of Consensus. It's called Infergen here in the us. I've actually been having a better time with Infergen than I did with PegIntron. To me the only draw back is having to inject every day. It gets old quick. I also have so many bruises from having to inject every day but other than that I just got back to exercising everyday and have a full time job and 2 young children. So it's doable.