Short Course of Miltefosine and Antimony to Treat Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Bolivia

September 28, 2007 updated by: Centro de Investigaciones Bioclínicas de la Fundación Fader

EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF A SHORT COURSE OF THE COMBINATION OF MILTEFOSINE AND ANTIMONY TO TREAT CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS IN BOLIVIA

The combination of a half-course of miltefosine and a half-course of antimony will be evaluated for efficacy and tolerance. The combination of miltefosine and antimony is chosen because these are now the two standard agents in Bolivia, and in vitro the combination was additive to mildly synergistic against a standard leishmania strain.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Combination therapy is now being used for many infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV. Combination therapy offers the potential of preventing drug resistance, because organisms resistant to one of the drugs may be susceptible to the other drug; and also the potential to diminish drug therapy duration and thus side effects. These two potential benefits to some extent contradict each other: preventing resistance is best done if full courses of both drugs is used; diminishing therapy duration means using less than the full course of each drug. The optimum combination regimen is one in which sufficient amounts of both drugs are used to have high efficacy, yet the amounts are as low as possible to spare patients unnecessarily long courses of drug.

Until recently, the standard treatment for the leishmaniases was pentavalent antimony (Glucantime or Pentostam). The cure rate for L panamensis in Colombia is 91%-93% [Soto, 1993; Velez, 1997] and the cure rate in Bolivia, in work soon to be completed, is also 90% [ Soto, unpublished results]. A large study with several formulations of antimony found a combined Bolivia-Colombia cure rate of 86% [Soto, 2004b]. Nevertheless, pentavalent antimonials have the disadvantages of multiple injections and mild-moderate clinical toxicity [gastrointestinal complaints, liver enzyme elevations, pancreatic enzyme elevations], all of which are particularly unpleasant for a moderate clinical problem such as cutaneous leishmaniasis.

The oral agent Miltefosine has now been shown to be as effective as antimony in Colombia and Bolivia. In Colombia, the cure rate for miltefosine was 91% [Soto 2004a] and in the soon to be completed comparative trial in Bolivia, the cure rate for miltefosine appears to be 92% [Soto, unpublished results]. Side effects seen in patients with cutaneous disease that can be specifically attributed to the drug are nausea and vomiting of mild grade in approximately 25% of patients, and low-grade elevation of creatinine also in approximately 25% of patients [Soto 2001; Soto 2004]. A further disadvantage of miltefosine is that regimens shorter than 4 weeks have not been evaluated for cutaneous disease.

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Bolivia
    • Santa Cruz
      • Jorochito, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 00000
        • Recruiting
        • Hospital Dermatológico
        • Contact:
        • Sub-Investigator:
          • David Paz, MD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Gender: Male Age: Adults Presentation: At least 1 lesion must be ulcerative. Parasitology: Parasitological confirmation of 1 lesion will be made by visualization or culture of leishmania from the biopsy or aspirate of the lesion.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Previous treatment for leishmaniasis, specific or putatively specific therapy (Sb, pentamidine, amphotericin B, imidazoles, allopurinol)
  • Other concomitant diseases by history and by approximately normal complete blood counts (white blood count, hemoglobin, platelet count), values of liver transaminases (SGOT), values of pancreatic function (lipase), kidney function tests (creatinine), and EKG.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Centro de Investigaciones Bioclínicas de la Fundación Fader

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Jonathan Berman, MD, PhD, AB Foundation for Medical Research
  • Principal Investigator: Jorge Vargas, MD, Cenetrop

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 28, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 28, 2007

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

October 2, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE)

October 2, 2007

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 28, 2007

Last Verified

September 1, 2007

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2007-Bol/LC-1339

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Subscribe