BCG & Tuberculosis

Thanks, Warren. I'm glad I asked.....

Rosemary

Warren,

All my doctors/medical personnel have told me that BCG is live attenuated tuberculosis cells. Have they given me a bum rap and am I telling people wrong???

Buds and in appreciation,
Rosemary

Dear Rosemary,
     How about, we're both right 
     I never trust my own recollection of information when intelligent people question me, so I looked it up. Here's what it says in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_Calmette-Gu%C3%A9rin .

Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is a vaccine against tuberculosis that is prepared from a strain of the attenuated (weakened) live bovine tuberculosis bacillus, Mycobacterium bovis, that has lost its virulence in humans by being specially cultured in an artificial medium for years.

Human tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is a related but different organism than BCG's original organism.

Rosemary - Thank you. That is very helpful information.

Warren,

All my doctors/medical personnel have told me that BCG is live attenuated tuberculosis cells. Have they given me a bum rap and am I telling people wrong???

Buds and in appreciation,
Rosemary

PS,

I think it interesting that Dr. Lamm sometimes administers PPD along with intravesical treatments. Dr. Lamm is sometimes full of surprises!!

Reduced dosage seems to be a valuable factor in reducing side effects of BCG therapy. Dr. Lamm recommends reduced dosage very often for those who have extreme reaction to BCG treatment. For the record, the reduced dosage did nothing to reduce the extreme side effects that I endured/am enduring as a result of my BCG treatment. (My response is included in .05% of BCG reactions of the recorded population)

However, after doing extensive research on the benefits of maintenance BCG therapy I am seriously considering resuming maintenance treatment (after a respite of 8 months).

Good luck and let us know how it goes...
Rosemary

Don,

I did a search using the name of Dr. Lamm who is a leading researcher in BCG therapy. There was a question posed at his website that addresses your concern. Here is the link with further discussion about BCG and tuberculosis:

http://askdrlamm.bcgoncology.com/category/bcg-and-tb/

Here is the Q&A:

Can BCG Be Given With an Allergic Reaction to PPD?

Sunday, July 16th, 2006
I am scheduled to begin BCG treatment tomorrow and would like to know if my allergic reaction to PPD tuberculin test some 34 years ago is reason to postpone or otherwise take precautionary measures.

BCG has been given to many patients with a hypersensitive response to PPD. PPD is the skin test for exposure to tuberculosis. More than 60% of patients who receive intravesical BCG will convert to a positive PPD skin test. There is some evidence that those who have a positive PPD or convert to positive PPD have a lower risk of tumor recurrence when treated with BCG. 90% of patients who receive percutaneous (through the skin) BCG will convert to positive PPD, so I often add percutaneous administration to increase the immune response. Surprisingly, people who have had severe reactions to PPD generally tolerate BCG. Nonetheless, there is an increased risk of side effects. These effects can be reduced, if needed, be dose reduction of BCG.