Adjunctive Therapies for RRP

Adjuvant or adjunct therapies are generally considered non-surgical treatments that are used along with surgical excision of papilloma to reduce or eliminate the need for surgery.

Adjunct Therapy and Protocol Update:

The following reports of statistics and clinical research involving RRP therapies, represents a best effort to make an accurate and objective presentation of information from surveys, articles submitted by investigators, personal communications and reference to literature. Where appropriate the RRPF has provided its input in a constructive manner which we hope will best serve the RRP community. 

Table 1. Patient/family assessed impact of adjuvant therapies reported (Summer 2002).

Therapy	Users	No	Improve	Comp	Partial
I3C/DIM	133	61	72	27	45
DIM1	7	2	5	1	4
IFN	61	26	35	5	39
Acyc	31	20	11	4	7
PDT*	19	13	6	1	5
Retin	16	10	6	0	6
Mumps	15	6	9	3	6
Cidofovir	20	2	18	4	14

1. In most cases the patient/parent has not specifically noted whether they are using I3C or DIM. Please help us assess the impact of DIM vs. I3C by including the specific name of the product that you are using.

Experimental therapies for which the RRPF has no documented patient supplied statistics:

Cimetidine (Tagamet)

HPV Vaccines

Omega-3 Fatty Acids (Fish Oil)

Some notes regarding the above table:
The therapies are abbreviated as follows, I3C/DIM = indole-3-carbinol (I3C) or Diindolylmethane (DIM), IFN = interferon, Acyc = acyclovir, PDT = photo dynamic therapy (*thus far only 1 patient has reported who has used the new agent mTHPC and they have indicated a complete response) , Ribvrn = ribavirin, Retin = retinoicacid or accutane, Mumps = mumps vaccine. In the category of other therapies used, improvement has been noted using the following treatments: Echinacea and Thuja (homeopathic anti-virals), a mixture of vitamins including vitamin C and vitamin A, ShapeRite immune formula, topical 5-flourouracil (5FU), bleomycin and cobalt. (Please see the I3C Update in the RRP newsletter issues, regarding side effects for some of these treatments.)