Antibodies to Remicade--what next?

Hey all, I've been on Remicade since September and I'm having a very good response to it. I am at 6 week intervals and having no symptoms between infusions and no obvious side effects. My last colonoscopy looked great--doc says I'm really healed up inside. So, all good news. Bad news is latest blood work showed some antibodies to the Remicade. Doc didn't stress me out about it much, and she gave me IV Benadryl in the infusion, saying that would protect me from an allergic reaction (which becomes more likely with the antibodies). I don't think she added anything else to the IV this time around. But I wonder whether a few antibodies always becomes a lot of them? Am I destined to need another drug to control the antibody production or might things stay at this level? I'm worried because Remicade is working SO WELL for me now; to have it stop working is unthinkable. Are there people who have been on Remicade for a long time with SOME antibody production without the drug becoming ineffective? Thanks for any thoughts.

Actually, no...I think it's just straight-up Remi. (I was on Asacol for a while but had a hard time taking them and my doc said it isn't clear they really help anyway. On Prednisone at various times but not now.) I wonder if she'll want to add Imuran. Hopefully it isn't too late!

At this point, you're doing fine so no worries. Adding an immunosuppressive medication (6mp or Imuran, or aza), may help treat your uc, combination therapy is a good thing. You have that plus the following options:

1.) A low level of antibodies to remicade can often be countered by increasing the frequency of infusions and/or increasing the dosage, if you start having symptoms return between infusions. Often, patients start at 8 week intervals, the maximum is every 4 weeks. Often, patients start at a dose of 5mgs per kilogram, the maximum dose is 10mgs per kilogram. So, you can boost to 10mgs per kilogram and every 4 weeks if/when it becomes necessary.

2.) Just because you have antibodies to remicade, doesn't mean that you will to other tnf-alpha blocking biologic medications (e.g., humira, simponi).

Who did the blood test for antibodies to remicade? Prometheus labs or a generic lab, like labcorp?

I'm set to get tested for blood level and antibodies before my next infusion. I think I'm doing fine, but my new GI seems convinced that after being on Remi this long I must have antibodies. He's been mumbling about stopping the Remi for a couple of months now. I'm not terribly confident in the test because Prometheus does the assay, and I don't have a high opinion of their lab. They seem to have an agenda of selling Imuran. Not surprising, since they also manufacture Imuran. I'm suspicious of labs that manufacture a drug then offer the only blood test for that drug. Seems a conflict of interest to me. They don't manufacture Remicade, so hopefully that won't be such an issue.