FT Clinical Trial Update

He said one of the most interesting things they've noticed so far is that almost everyone with active ulcerative colitis that they've taken biospies from had a lack of butyrate producing bacteria.. I believe this may have been talked about on here before but I can't recal, so it may not be new news but interesting nonetheless.

There was also a post the other day about the CCFA and being driven by BigPharma and not looking for a cure, well they're partly funding this research and I asked the doctor point blank what his intent was and he said I would consider this a failure if I did not cure Ulcerative Colitis.. A bit dramatic of a response I thought, but his heart was in the right place.. Anyway, my point is, they are still trying to find a cure for Ulcerative Colitis.

Sorry to get off track there for a second..

Most of the hard work in this research wont be completed for another couple years but I think even at %50 success rate so far, for a treatment with no side effects other than some temporary increased bloating and gas, this is a very positive thing..

I'll continue to update as I get more info and go through this trial.. Pending I hang in there the whole time, during my flex sig when the doc put the scope in his first comment was, "Well, that's about as inflammed as it'll ever be", which can be echoed in exactly how I feel with intense pain and bleeding and 20-30 trips to the bathroom a day.

You are correct, this is double blind. You are rendomized to whether you get the placebo or the treatment, once the 6 weeks is up, they "crack the code" and you see if you were getting treatment or palcebo. In the group of people that were receiving placebo, they will then offer you the treatment.

There is still a lot of data too go through, and like I said intially, the heavy work will be starting when the trial is over. So we're really still a couple years away from any real information here but from the discussions I had with the people running the trial, they are seeing a lot of positives already. There have been people with severe UC going into complete remission, but then there have also been people with minor inflammation not having any benefit. When they analyze all the data i'm sure they'll discover why that happened.

As far as the specifics of the strains the doctor mentioned, at this point they are analyzing the results based on groupings of bacteria types, from a similar family so to say, as opposed to the specific one strain/breed of bacteria, as it is more cost effective for them and gives them a broader picture. With that said, once the trial is done, March of 2014, they start the 2(ish) year process of fully analyzing all of the data.

I'm hoping I can make it through the trial, I havent had my first infusion yet and I am getting almost to the end of the line with this disease and ready to get this darn colon cut right out....