Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil Cuadra
Many news sites ( example) reported that Sanofi withdrew Campath from the market in 2012. There are still clinical trials involving alemtuzumab in the recruiting phase ( example), but I don't know the status for its current use with bone marrow failure diseases like severe aplastic anemia. It's telling that the campath.com website is gone.
Sanofi has an assistance program for patients who have been prescribed Lemtrade, their newer version of alemtuzumab, used to treat multiple sclerosis. Ironically, aplastic anemia is listed as a possible side effect of Lemtrade when used to treat MS.
I suggest trying the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation's Patient HelpLine, to see if they have information about this. |
Hi Neil! I hope you are well.
I just want to say that Dr. Young and his team have recommended Campath for my mother should her aplastic anemia not improve in the next 4-5 months (she had horse-atg many months ago). He says her disease is highly autoimmune (immune-mediated). Not all cases of aplastic anemia are equally immune-mediated. If you have the PNH clone, he says, that really makes your aplastic anemia highly autoimmune. Also, not having cytogenetic changes in your bone marrow six months after ATG also can indicate the highly immune-mediated nature of the disease. There might be other reasons, too, but I am not sure of them. He is a top expert in aplastic anemia, as you know.
Dr. Young said no to rabbit-atg for my mother, as he believes Campath is more likely to work. Also, Campath has little risk of causing negative changes within the bone marrow; this is not the case with rabbit-atg.
Please take care.
