Latest FMT study

Too bad they didn't test it on people with severely active colitis....

Thanks for the synopsis! They are starting fecal transplants at my hospital (experimental) but my doc said it isn't a miracle cure and therefore doesn't suggest it for my (exceptionally persistent) proctosigmoiditis. I think one of the problems with fmt is how to standardise or control the donor quality. If you use donations from lots of different people in one study it can be difficult to assess what works.

I've always thought controlling certain host attributes would create the greatest chances of colonisation. Mainly hormones that impact motility, immune and digestion.

There are good donors in the pool used for the FM (enemas, or pills) used for the research studies.

If therapies develop with ongoing use of material collected for these pools, the cost is likely to be higher or as high as biologics, because the transport of the material under conditions that do not kill microbes is costly.

If a practice of identifying a volunteer donor judged "good" for each patient's ongoing therapy were to develop instead, I think there would need to be local labs that process the material (maybe collect too) in a way that prevents contact with air. The anerobic microbes seem key. Most DIY procedures expose to lots of air and kill all the anerobic microbes. This service is likely to be expensive.

The promise here is that it is a novel therapy with some good results -- not that it will ultimately be cheaper.

I'm hopeful we'll see more FMT advancements. I know it doesn't work for everyone, but for those of us who have experienced flares after years of antibiotic use, the results are very promising. I just finished a round of 7 FMT treatments through a clinical trial. I am also on Entyvio, but after almost 12 full months of Entyvio and 7 FMT treatments, I am very close to remission. I enrolled in the study after 8 months of Entyvio and still some mild to moderate inflammation. I'm guessing my inflammation may still be mild in some parts of my colon, but it is such a vast improvement over where I started several months ago. I have a colonoscopy scheduled next week to determine where I'm truly at. My FMT treatments were spaced one week a part. I think my body may have benefitted even more from treatments every several days over an one month period, and I would love to be able to continue maintenance therapy. However, since the FDA decided to categorize poop as a drug, and I'm not ready to screen and prepare someone else's poop, that just isn't currently possible. I fear it may never be since there isn't big money in a natural therapy. While some FMT treatments have resulted in up to 75% patient remission or improvement with little side effects and biologics have a lot more side effects, we likely will not see FDA approval of FMT treatment for UC anytime soon. It's so frustrating that the FDA is more influenced by money than the health of the Americans they are supposed to be serving and protecting.

I have been on FMT at Macmaster for quite some time.
After the initial set of Infusions which I finished in March of 2018
I went onto a Maintenance program where I get FMT once a month.

Along with this I am on Entyvio where i get an infusion once per month.
My BM usually average about 4 over a 24hr period.
One thing I will say about FMT coming from someone who had C-Diff 4 times it totally cured me of that.

Few single treatments get us to a 100%, I am glad you saw some improvement from FMT, however, you might need more than just that to achieve a lasting remission. 3 bms a day is suggestive of mild UC inflammation, which it sounds like they saw during your colonoscopy. So, you are undertreated with your current treatment plan. I do not think doubling down on a FMT will give you a remission, rather you need additional treatments to achieve it.

No, a flu did not make your colon look inflamed; not possible.

Hi Little Bear, sorry to hear the colonoscopy results were not as good as you expected. I have experienced a spontaneous flare brought on by a stomach bug - symptoms of blood and mucus that came and went as quickly as the bug itself, so it's possible. I do agree with iPoop though that additional meds might be necessary for you at this time. I wouldn't give up on the FMT though if you feel you're not done with exploring it. FMT tends to be more beneficial when there is less active inflammation, many people go ham on the prednisone and other meds as part of a pre treatment method, the goal being to make a happy home for the bugs to be able to do their thing and gain strength without the additional stress of having to constantly put out fires.
I've also heard many research anecdotes of the colon further improving 6 months- a year after a short round of FMT, it seems the benefits can continue as time goes on. All this to say, I don't think it's as black and white as it works or it doesn't: some people take longer to respond, need more treatments, need to try different donors, more medication or diet interventions alongside the treatment, etc. I support you in your attitude of not giving up yet!