Hi Everyone
Just wondering if anyone has used the drug Acyclovir (sometimes spelled Aciclovir) with any success. The Care Oncology Clinic has recenly offered it to me. Also, any experiences in using it alongside CCNU/Lomustine chemotherapy would be excellent, as I might end up doing that combination of drugs.
Many thanks
Liam
I'm guessing the linkage for Acyclovir would be its use as an antiviral and cytomegalovirus. There are a number of people on the board using Valcyte or something similar which has a few studies indicating potential for CMV to be a driver for GBM. The problem is that it is a VERY expensive drug.
ReplyDeleteSo maybe Acyclovir is an attempt to mimic the potential with an inexpensive anti-viral. They are fairly different drugs though so definitely check into seeing if any studies indicate the same kind of benefits.
Personally I haven't used it, but I have taken both temodar and then switched to CCNU. 2 reasons I did that. First was a sort of simplistic plan of attacking the cancer from more than one angle. Second though was that temodar is a mono-alkylating chemo and CCNU is a bi-alkylate and there is SOME data indicating CCNU is less mutagenic and so less risk of hypermutation. The caveat is that it is WAY harder on bone marrow than TMZ. For me I sailed thru 6 rounds of TMZ with barely a blip on my blood work and then had a 70% drop in my counts with my first CCNU round, had to dose reduce and dropped as bad on round 2 and am 2.5 months out and barely recovered. So the NO said no more CCNU.
I'd agree with the above comment, that the suggestion of acyclovir is likely due to the link between cytomegalovirus and GBM, and acyclovir being a much cheaper drug than Valcyte. However I've not seen any clinical studies with acyclovir for GBM/glioma, so there is much less evidence than for Valcyte.
ReplyDeleteAs you may know, Ben Williams, who also had an IDH1-mutant GBM with significant residual tumor post-resection used verapamil for the 7 day period before and after CCNU. Of course we don't know if that contributed to his successful outcome, but it could be worth a try.
Acyclovir might Inhibit IDO to Decrease Tregs, therefore could be used as a Glioblastoma Treatment Adjunct
ReplyDeletehttp://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/729219
Maybe worth the time reasing the story of Erin here https://www.inspire.com/groups/american-brain-tumor-association/discussion/cancer-caused-by-a-virus/?ga=freshen
ReplyDeleteI just have bought today the acyclovir. How long should it be taken? What dose?
See third post here https://www.cancerforums.net/threads/3804-Growth-rate-of-GBM
ReplyDeleteAcyclovir seemed to do some help...
My brother is on valcyte but since it's so expensive we switched to valganciclovir accord /Orion wich is a generic drug and much much cheaper
ReplyDeleteWhich country do you get this brand of valganciclovir from?
DeleteFrom doctor Giuseppe Stragliotto in sweden, Karolinska institute in Stockholm
ReplyDeleteHi Liam, may I ask you what dosage did they prescribed for you? Did they suggest to use it daily or just around chemo time? Thank you in advance.
ReplyDelete