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Phage therapy

Posted by kathyhg @kathyhg, Jan 12 7:34am

I just saw a commercial about a woman who had phage therapy for mycobacterium abscesses at the Mayo Clinic, with really good results. I’ve read a bit about phage therapy here, I think, but never paid much attention to it until now.

Has anyone had experience with phage therapy and/or know more about it? Is it a legitimate alternative to the medications, airway clearance, etc to treating NTM (I have Mac)?

Thanks in advance

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scoop | @scoop | Apr 17 12:12pm
In reply to @helen1000 "Good morning, Just talked to Dr. Dupont from UZ Leuven. He is such a respectable person!..." + (show)
@helen1000

Good morning,

Just talked to Dr. Dupont from UZ Leuven. He is such a respectable person! Very decent, very honest and respect his patients. He spent 30 mins thoroughly discussed phage therapy, answered all my questions and possible treatment methods. He is a real doctor.

The whole process is 1) provide the medical information to the hospital, 2) Give the sputum culture to laboratory and they test whether there is phage to your bacteria, if yes, 3) Return to Belgium to receive the treatment for 6 weeks. Every week, there is new medication ( phage). It is hard to ship the phage so it is better to receive the treatment in person.

As I am an international patient, there may be an option to send the sputum culture from USA to Belgium instead of going there in person. I will discuss with my doctor to see whether he can do this for me.

Phage is still in experimental stage and they have only two MAC patients and no successful cases yet. And these two patients are both using phage as a salvage. That means, they have tried all other therapies and none of them work. But a good thing is that phage therapy has no side effects from all of his patients (including patients of other illnesses).

So I am hesitating whether I should move forward. Anyone interested in seeking therapy in Belgium based on above? The total cost should be around $2000- $4000. It is kind of appealing to me as I really hesitate to go thorough antibiotics.

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Perhaps I've missed something. With phage trials in USA what would prompt the visit to Belgium? There was a study I linked that showed compassionate phage use in 20 people if I remember correctly. Not sure about the country but the conflict of interest statement is exceptionally long. Showed favorable benefit in some patients.

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1 reply
helen1000 | @helen1000 | Apr 17 4:06pm
In reply to @scoop "Perhaps I've missed something. With phage trials in USA what would prompt the visit to Belgium?..." + (show)
@scoop

Perhaps I've missed something. With phage trials in USA what would prompt the visit to Belgium? There was a study I linked that showed compassionate phage use in 20 people if I remember correctly. Not sure about the country but the conflict of interest statement is exceptionally long. Showed favorable benefit in some patients.

Jump to this post

Maybe not for MAC patient? But for patients with other diseases?

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lilianna | @lilianna | Apr 18 8:09am

Helen be a pioneer. Would they treat you despite not being treated for Mac so far? I really would like to know. Or would they treat you if you are being treated or finished treatment? I think you are a curious and brave and strong to go that way. But please share what’s happening.

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kathyhg | @kathyhg | Apr 18 6:06pm

Agree. Helen is making me think about options like this and I’m guessing others might feel the same!

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