If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  IAS: One Week On, One Week Off HIV Treatment Fails By Ed Susman PARIS, FRANCE -- July 21, 2003 -- Results of an international trial released July 16th at the 2nd International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment have proved a setback for structured treatment interruptions -- the controversial therapeutic approach of drug holidays for patients on antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection. "Scheduled treatment interruptions are being evaluated in an effort to decrease costs and side effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)," said Bernard Hirschel, MD, professor of infectious diseases, Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland. "A schedule of 1 week on and 1 week off therapy offers the promise of a 50% less drug exposure with continuously undetectable HIV concentration." But in his study, 19 of 36 patients -- 53% of the group -- had 2 successive HIV serum concentrations above 500 copies/mL, which classified them as virologic failures, Dr. Hirschel noted. In the study, Dr. Hirschel and colleagues recruited patients from the HIV Netherlands Australia Thailand Research Collaboration (HIVNAT)-sponsored international Staccato Trial, and offered them participation in the structured treatment-interruption trial. The other patients in the 112-individual subgroup study were assigned to ongoing arms that involved conventional treatment and structured treatment guided by CD4-positive cell counts. Michel Kazatchkine, MD, Director, Agence nationale de reserches de le sida, the French AIDS research agency, Paris, France, noted that, although these regimens continue to be controversial, the treatment option is not yet ready to be scrapped. "There are several ongoing studies in the United States, France, and Africa testing various options in structured treatment interruptions," he stated. Dr. Hirschel said that, in this particular trial, 11 of the 19 patients who experienced virologic failure were taking a regimen of didanosine, stavudine, saquinavir, and ritonavir. Two of 3 patients experienced virologic failure while taking a triple nucleoside regimen. "They nonetheless responded, however, to reintroduction of triple nucleoside therapy," he concluded.
[Study title: Failures Of One Week On, One Week Off Anti-Retroviral Therapies In A Randomized Trial. Abstract LB4]
|
