Cyclosporine vs CellCept

[Sluff]

Has anyone had any experience taking Cyclosporine or Cellcept or both?

History:   I have taken 300mg of cyclosporine daily for over 9 months.I had success in lowering my protein loss for 7 of the 9 months.
On the 8th month my protein loss went back up to almost triple of what it had gone down to. Now in the 9th month of taking cyclosporine my protein loss stayed about the same as last month.

Current: My nephrologist says he would like me to go into remission as we have not been able to get me off the meds yet and wants me to try Cellcept and quit the Cyclosporine if the cellcept costs me too much than I should stay on the cyclosporine. Cellcept will cost me double the cost of the cyclosporine.

My question is does anyone think I should change from cyclosporine to cellcept or should I stay on cyclosporine and why?

Will the side effects be the same?

Discussion please.

[renal30yrs]

Has anyone had any experience taking Cyclosporine or Cellcept or both?

History:   I have taken 300mg of cyclosporine daily for over 9 months.I had success in lowering my protein loss for 7 of the 9 months.
On the 8th month my protein loss went back up to almost triple of what it had gone down to. Now in the 9th month of taking cyclosporine my protein loss stayed about the same as last month.

Current: My nephrologist says he would like me to go into remission as we have not been able to get me off the meds yet and wants me to try Cellcept and quit the Cyclosporine if the cellcept costs me too much than I should stay on the cyclosporine. Cellcept will cost me double the cost of the cyclosporine.

My question is does anyone think I should change from cyclosporine to cellcept or should I stay on cyclosporine and why?

Will the side effects be the same?

Discussion please.

Cyclosporine is very nephrotoxic.  Cellcept is a newer generation drug and is inherently safer. 

[AlasdairUK]

If you can avoid not being on both I would go for Cellcept. Towards the end of my transplant I started taking cellcept, but by then the damage from cyclosporin was too great and we where just trying to delay the inevitable.

Cyclosporin is a double edged sword as it stops rejection but in the long run it will damage your kidney.

[renal30yrs]

When I had my first transplant in 83' they didn't know the proper dosage.  Guess what happened?  Too much cyclosporine (administered in a very crude method, siphoning them by syringe and squirt them into the cocktail of olive oil nd cranberry juice) in my case caused ATN, weeks of extra dialysis and hospital stay.  Meanwhile they were arguing everyday the whole time to see they should just remove the transplanted kidney.  One of hairraising episode of the early days of cyclosporine.

[Panda_9]

Cyclosporine gave me breast lumps. I had a total of 110 (100 from one breast) lumps removed over 2 operations. I then changed over to cellcept, dont remember having any side effects.

[Sluff]

Thanks everyone for your input.

[Sluff]

It's funny I searched and searched to find answers and I had to ask here to get the sraight skinny.

That's why i love IHD. 

[stauffenberg]

Donald Hricik's book, "Kidney Transplantation," p. 50, compares the side-effects of cyclosporine and cellcept as follows:  Cyclosporine, in addition to its nephrotoxicity, has a small tendency to increase the chance of malignancy, nerve damage, and diabetes; it has a marked tendency to increase hypertension and excess blood lipids; and it has an extreme tendency to cause overgrowth of gum tissue, excess hair growth, and blood disorders.  Cellcept has a small tendency to cause malignancy and blood disorders, and an extreme tendency to cause gastrointestinal problems and lack of white blood cells.  Cellcept, especially in combination with cyclosporine and prednisone, has been found to extend the lifespan of transplanted organs and greatly to reduce the incidence of actue rejection.  The bottom line is: pick your poison!

[meadowlandsnj]

Has anyone had any experience taking Cyclosporine or Cellcept or both?

History:   I have taken 300mg of cyclosporine daily for over 9 months.I had success in lowering my protein loss for 7 of the 9 months.
On the 8th month my protein loss went back up to almost triple of what it had gone down to. Now in the 9th month of taking cyclosporine my protein loss stayed about the same as last month.

Current: My nephrologist says he would like me to go into remission as we have not been able to get me off the meds yet and wants me to try Cellcept and quit the Cyclosporine if the cellcept costs me too much than I should stay on the cyclosporine. Cellcept will cost me double the cost of the cyclosporine.

My question is does anyone think I should change from cyclosporine to cellcept or should I stay on cyclosporine and why?

Will the side effects be the same?

Discussion please.

I was started on Cyclosporin, then put on Neoral (another version of it).  After three years of it it started hurting my transplanted kidney, it was getting toxic toward it.  I stopped taking it then I was switched to Cellcept, in fact I was one of the first to take it in my center.  I had minimal side effects from it.  In the beginning I had some stomach upsets but they went away with time.  I was told to take it with food so that helped. 
Good luck with whatever you decide to do

Donna

[livecam]

I've been on Prograf (Tacrolimus) and Cellcept (Mycophenolate) since the beginning which was 5 years and 3 months ago.  Prednisone was weaned totally at just under two years.  I have had virtually no gastrointestinal problems, I do have a reduced white blood cell count which is pretty much noticed in all periodic labs, and have had one case of basal cell carcinoma on the forehead which may or may not be related to immunosupressant use.  During this time I have been sick very little with contagious things like cold, flu, etc., in fact healthier than I was for some years before the transplant. All of those drugs are nephrotoxic to a degree, some less than others but all are.  That is why transplanted kidneys tend to have a finite life, some longer than others but generally not permanent.  About switching from Cyclosporine to Cellcept, that is an issue for you and your doctors.  If you have side effects related to Cyclosporine use it could make sense.  At the time I was transplanted Prograf and Cellcept were sort of the gold standard in drugs.  So far they've been working very well. My transplant surgeon was an early adopter and believer in Prograf and wrote several articles about it's use.  A really big thank you to Dr. John Dunn and company!

[angela515]

My first transplant I was on Neoral and Cellcept... I didnt have any problem with either.... this time im not on either one. Im on Prograf and Rapamune.

[stauffenberg]

Yet another one of those ugly coincidences that make you wonder whether the universe hates humans is the fact that 1) the most important anti-rejection medication is cyclosporine; 2) cyclosporine is toxic to kidneys; and 3) the most common form of organ transplant is kidney transplant!  Why do we find the coincidence that what makes transplants possible for so many people is also what makes the most common type of transplant fail?  This can't be just blind bad luck, but rather, one suspects some evil lurking in the basic structure of the world.

Heart transplant patients have to take even larger doses of immunosuppression than renal transplant patients do, and the two heart transplant patients I knew who were on dialysis because the cyclosporine they had to take to preserve their new heart had destroyed their kidneys both said they would rather have had to live with their weak hearts than have had to endure dialysis.

[Epoman]

It's funny I searched and searched to find answers and I had to ask here to get the sraight skinny.

That's why i love IHD. 

Told you sluff!  One more reason why IHD is so great.

- Epoman

[carolyn77531]

My daughter was on cyclosporine when she got her transplant, boy, she had the side effects,,,but...i did not know in the long run that is couse kidney damage......why docs don't tell  you this stuff...I'm going to more inform this second time around.....they did move her to prograf about 5yrs after her transplant

[Amanda From OZ]

My sister and her friend were both taken off Cyclosporine and placed on cellcept, because it was toxic and causing their kidneys to fail.

[Sluff]

Thank you all for your answers and I guess it would be better to try Cellcept then.

[BigSky]

I must be the odd one. 

I was on Cyclosporin for 12 years and never had any side affects or any problems with it.  From the days of measuring with the syringe and mixing it with juice to the oral capsules.

However in your case Sluff  I would use whatever one will give you the best results vs side effects.

[angela515]

I also never had any side effects from Cyclosporine BigSky.

[Panda_9]

Donald Hricik's book, "Kidney Transplantation," p. 50, compares the side-effects of cyclosporine and cellcept as follows:  Cyclosporine, in addition to its nephrotoxicity, has a small tendency to increase the chance of malignancy, nerve damage, and diabetes; it has a marked tendency to increase hypertension and excess blood lipids; and it has an extreme tendency to cause overgrowth of gum tissue, excess hair growth, and blood disorders.  Cellcept has a small tendency to cause malignancy and blood disorders, and an extreme tendency to cause gastrointestinal problems and lack of white blood cells.  Cellcept, especially in combination with cyclosporine and prednisone, has been found to extend the lifespan of transplanted organs and greatly to reduce the incidence of actue rejection.  The bottom line is: pick your poison!

I got the excess hair growth thing with cyclosporin. My arm hair turned black, and I had hair under my ears sort of on the jaw line, was blond though thankfully. My eyebrows went from barely there to very there. I became good friends with a bottle of peroxide and a pair of tweezers. One good thing is the hair on my head which was already very long and thick, grew really fast, became heaps thicker and looked sooo healthy. Now Im not on it my hair is thin as shit and was dull until I started nocturnal. Im not sure why, think it was stress, but 3/4 of my hair fell out while I was at uni and went extremely dull. I now keep it short and it is only slightly thicker. Dont think it will ever be the same again.