Interferon Alpha

I was checking in to see if anyone has been on interferon alpha for a prolonged time. I know that the new oral agents have been approved but my husband has been on 6 million units of interferon , it started with a three arm clinical trial, November 2004 and he didnt receive the actual trial drug but has remained stable for over 69 weeks, when he began he had lung, bone and skin metastsis, still stable but not any shrinkage. His kidney was removed March
2001 14 cms in size and also a 1 cm lung nodule
with a wedge resection.

Some people are on interferon for a long period of time. If you join the KIDNEY-ONC email support list ( http://cancerguide.org/kofaq/ ) and ask your question, you will hear from others.

Having all the cancer disappear is best, but stable is a good thing.

I just read your message and I don't know if you are still reading or not. My husband was on 10million units of Intron A for 3 1/2 years and it held the tumours in the lung and duoduem. He has Renal Cell. I beleive it is wonderful but after the length of time he was on it the side effects in the end made it so he had to come off it. The confusion was bad. He was off Intron for 11 months and things stayed stable until the 11 month and a new tumor reared its head. 4mm so he now has one tumor 1.5cm and this one. He went on nexavar but had to be taken off it because of major side effects but now is on sutent and over 1/2 way through the first cycle with little to no side effects. We will be excited to see what the change is. So I can not say that Intron was not good it did its job other than the needles were not fun.
Hope all is well Mazzy