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This is a very difficult question to answer. If your daughter had shown a response, even a small one, to the first round of H-ATG, then I'd say to repeat the horse. That's what we did, and I'm glad we did, particuarly since recent studies have shown that H-ATG is more effective than R-ATG as a first line therapy.
On the other hand, R-ATG is still useful for salvage therapy, meaning when the first line of treatment hasn't been successful. I'm not sure whether or not it would be worth trying again with the horse in this case. I think if we had seen no response at all the first time we might have switched, but I imagine every doctor has their own opinion on this.
Has anyone else come across any recent statistics on horse vs. rabbit for salvage therapy? I tried searching and couldn't find anything.
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-Lisa, husband Ken age 60 dx SAA 7/04, dx hypo MDS 1/06 w/finding of trisomy 8; 2 ATGs, partial remission, still using cyclosporine
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