DNA Vaccine trial in doubt for me ...

[StephN]

After my good news last week (and thanks to you who replied so kindly), it looks like I have a quirk in my blood that might interfere with the U of W DNA vaccine trial.
I am bringing this up as I have not noticed it on this board in other posts. It does say in the criteria that the "ANA will be tested." They are looking for a negative result on this and two other blood tests - the anti-dsDNA (anti-double stranded DNA) and the C3 (Complete component C).
(A positive ANA is normally indicative of some kind of auto-immune disorder.)

The one that came out positive for me is the ANA (Antinuclear antibody). You can put this term into your search engine and get a thousand pages with info.
One of the things I learned in my research on this is that chemo and cancer can cause this blood value to be slightly elevated. (Some of you may recall that I had a LOT of chemo.)

The other two immune function blood tests are fine and it is only the ANA that is somewhat elevated. Apparently this same result has disqualified a few other women, so I am not alone in this.

I have been trying to come up with some information on any way to lower my ANA, but it could take many more hours that I have right now. The plan is to retest in about 3 weeks.

Any ideas or research would be appreciated.

[michele u]

Steph,

my ANA has been positve for 12 years! It HAPPENED to be NORMAL when they checked it before i got my vaccines. How, i don't know. The last time they checked it , it was up again, but i had already gotten my vaccines. The ANA can vary everytime you do it. My suggestion. Keep checking it. It will go back down to normal. How long has it been since you have been off steroids? I think a short course of steroids would bring it back down.

[Julie2]

Steph,

I got my ANA test positive and they almost rejected me and also suggested to retest again. I got it done just before the next Herceptin infusion and the test came back negative. I already finished two vaccines and due for the last one. Please get it retested. It has very high false positives.

Julie

[3sweeties]

Apparently numerous things can elevate an ANA lab test including; medications; Apresoline, Procan, Dilantin, Penicillin, Isoniazid, Tetracylcine, Lithium, some diuretics, heart or blood pressure medications; Capoten, Tenormin, Lopressor, Mevacor, Quinidine.
Aging can even increase an ANA level; 5-40% of older adults have mildly elevated levels, older women appear to have higher ANA titers.

No info as to what to do to decrease it but I found in looking; a method called ELISA is replacing the previous method of testing (IFA). The ELISA method is less likely to produce a false positive ANA result than the IFA method.


Hope this helps.

A.

[karenann]

Steph,

My ANA has been high for years, too and the docs can't find any reason for it. I have had about 100 blood test and a liver biopsy (they thought I might have auto immune hepatitis) and everything came out just fine.

Hang in there.

Karen

[Lolly]

Steph, re. 3sweeties post above on the numerous agents that can contribute to an elevated ANA result;

"Quinidine: It is a stereoisomer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoisomer) of quinine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinine)..." From Wikipedia

I remember you saying in an earlier post that you sometimes take quinine for muscle cramping; maybe a contributing factor in the elevated ANA?

<3 Lolly

[StephN]

Yes - I noticed that, too (quinine) - and it had come up in my research as well.
I take so little now that unless I took it right prior to the test it should not make a difference. But, I will do my best to lay off it and just hope the cramps lay off me! At least until I have the test.

Thanks for all the replies. Just one of those mysteries of my body for the moment.

[Esther]

Steph, which vaccine trial are you looking to get into?

[Kim in CA]

Hi Steph,

Just wondering how this trial differs from the Her2 vaccine trial that Lolly and I did?

Kim

[StephN]

There are two different HER2 vaccine trials at the U of W.
Michele U took the DNA one and Lolly took the Pepide based one. (As well as several other ladies who post on this site.)

There is a link under the clinical trials area of this site where you can get to the U of W Tumor Group and find out about the differences.

For the Peptide one you have to be HLA - 2, and I was tested for that and was NOT 2 so could not even begin to qualify for that one.