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In patients with HTLV-1 associated acute T-cell leukemia, is there any clear benefit of adding antivirals?

If yes, would you go with Zidovudine monotherapy versus combining with interferon-alpha? And what would be the preferred dose and duration?
1 Answer
Mednet Member
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Infectious Disease · Stanford Health Care
Answered on

There is no virologic rationale for using antivirals to treat HTLV-1-associated malignancies. HTLV-1 is a "transforming" retrovirus that directly causes cancer by oncogene expression. There is no significant "lytic" replication occurring once the cancer has manifested. Antiretrovirals only work with...

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