Urtica Comp. Gel for Prevention and Therapy of Radiation Dermatitis (Urticacomp)

Urtica Comp. Gel for Prevention and Therapy of Radiation Dermatitis (An Interdisciplinary, Interprofessional Phase II Randomized Controlled Trial in Patients With Breast Cancer)

A randomized controlled trial comparing Urtica comp. gel (Swissmedic listed medication in the category of "Anthroposophic Medication without Indication") against standard skin care, examining its effect in prevention and treatment of radiation dermatitis in breast cancer patients under Radiation therapy.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Radiation Dermatitis
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Urtica comp. gel; Drug: institutional standard skin care "Excipial-Hydrolotion"

Detailed Description

Radiation dermatitis is one of the most common side effects of radiotherapy for cancer and affects around 95 % of patients receiving radiotherapy. Patients with breast cancer as well as patients with head and neck cancer are most frequently affected, due to the higher radiation dose to the skin, as compared to other cancer types.

Radiation dermatitis has a profound impact on the quality of a patient's life, due to pain and discomfort. Skin lesions bear a marked risk of infection. In addition, all these issues may be the cause of interruption of radiation therapy, resulting in inadequate disease treatment.

Despite a plentitude of studies researching local and systemic therapeutic approaches, currently no treatment (aside from local steroids which bear substantial side-effects) can be explicitly recommended.

Thus, further research, especially in therapeutic options with a positive side-effect spectrum would be highly beneficial.

Urtica comp. gel is a Swissmedic registered medication. It is e.g. applied in first and second-degree burn and scalding as well as sunburn and has been used in over 80 years with an excellent safety profile. Positive clinical experience in treating radiation dermatitis with Urtica comp. gel suggest studying this therapeutic option in a pilot trial.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 31
• Phase: Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Switzerland
  • Bern, Switzerland, 3010
    • Universitätsklinik für Radio-Onkologie

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Radiation therapy for Breast Cancer
• Age >= 18 years
• Written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Ulcerated cancer at beginning of radiation therapy
• Skin lesions in the radiation area before start of radiation therapy
• Known allergies, hypersensitivity or reactions against one of the constituents of the investigational product [5]
• Any neurological or psychiatric conditions that, in the evaluation of the treating physician, deem the patient incapable to participate in the study
• Other clinically significant concomitant disease states (e.g., renal failure, hepatic dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, etc.) as judged by the PI

The following criteria are exclusion criteria for the conduct of the radiation therapy, which is prerequisite for inclusion into the study. Thus, such patients will anyway not meet the inclusion criteria and are explicitly excluded from participation:

• Women who are pregnant or breast feeding
• Lack of safe contraception, defined as: Female participants of childbearing potential, not using and not willing to continue using a medically reliable method of contraception for the entire study duration, such as oral, injectable, or implantable contraceptives, or intrauterine contraceptive devices, or who are not using any other method considered sufficiently reliable by the investigator in individual cases.
• Please note that female participants who are surgically sterilised / hysterectomised or post-menopausal for longer than 2 years are not considered as being of child bearing potential.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Test group; For the patients of the test-group Urtica comp gel is applied three times per day locally on the skin as soon as the patient senses "itching, tingling" and/or reddening. Otherwise the skincare is exactly as the control group in line with the departments general guidelines. In case of marked worsening, e.g. epitheliolysis, the patient may receive "Flammazine and Ialugen plus" as rescue-care. Rescue care: according to the departments therapeutic guidelines patients will receive "Flammazine and/or Ialugen plus" as clinically indicated at the discretion of the treating physician (usually in cases of marked worsening of the skin condition like e.g. epitheliolysis).	Drug: Urtica comp. gel; Urtica comp. gel is a Swissmedic registered medication. The scope of application of Urtica comp. is an imbalanced, affected process of skin-regeneration, in particular when stemming from an overdose of heat or light. It is applied in first and second-degree burn and scalding, sunburn, allergic and hyperergic (excessive) skin conditions (dermatoses), insect bites, abrasions and ulcers.; Other Names: Wund- und Brand Gel
Active Comparator: Control group; Control group receiving the institutional standard skin care "Excipial-Hydrolotion" - all other therapeutic interventions, assessments and rescue-care will be the same in both groups.	Drug: institutional standard skin care "Excipial-Hydrolotion"; The institutional standard skin care "Excipial-Hydrolotion" is available to all patients; Other Names: Excipial

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Incidence of Radiation Dermatitis (RD) measured by the CTCAE	Comparison between both arms	During the whole study (six weeks of therapy plus follow-up of six weeks)
Severity of RD measured by the CTCAE	Comparison between both arms	During the whole study (six weeks of therapy plus follow-up of six weeks)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Percentage of patients requiring no additional therapy for RD (e.g. Flammazine or Ialugen plus)	Comparison between both arms measuring the use of Flammazine or Ialugen plus (rescue-care)	During the whole study (six weeks of therapy plus follow-up of six weeks)
Percentage of patients RD free at end of therapy (EOT) measured by the CTCAE	Comparison between both arms	EOT (=time point specifically at end of 6 weeks of radiation therapy)
Percentage of patients with secondary skin infection / need of topical and systemic antibiotics	Comparison between both arms	During the whole study (six weeks of therapy plus follow-up of six weeks)
Patients quality of life measured by the Skindex	Comparison between both arms.	During the whole study (six weeks of therapy plus follow-up of six weeks)
Patients evaluation of the treatment (satisfaction) measured by the FACIT-TS-G (total scale)	Comparison between both arms. The FACIT-TS-G (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy treatment satisfaction - General) assesses the patients treatment satisfaction at the end of therapy (EOT after 6 weeks of Radiation therapy). The questionnaire consists of 8 questions, 3 of which are answered on a scale ranging from 0 (much worse) to 4 (much better), 3 questions ranging from 0 (not al all) to 3 (totally) and two questions which can be answered with 0 (no), 1(maybe) and 2 (yes). Thus on all scales a higher value represents a better outcome. The total score range is 0 (not satisfied at all) to 25 (highly satisfied).	EOT (=time point specifically at end of 6 weeks of radiation therapy)
Patients evaluation of the treatment (Skin condition) measured by visual analog scale (VAS)	with the Skin Condition VAS the patient self-assesses the skin condition in the radiation area. The questionnaire consists of 5 subscales: pain, itching, burning, irritation, visual appearance. Each scale ranges from 0 (not apparent) to 100 (worst possible expression). For the total score all values are summed up and divided by 5 (number of scales) resulting in a total score ranging from 0 (best possible outcome = no skin affection due to radiation) to 100 (worst possible outcome).	During the whole study (six weeks of therapy plus follow-up of six weeks)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Bern
• Investigators: Study Director: Ursula Wolf, University Bern, Institution of Complementary Medicine; Principal Investigator: Nikola Cihoric, MD PhD, University Bern, Department of Radiation Oncology

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 2, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 10, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): February 10, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 22, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 3, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): April 11, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 27, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 23, 2022
• Last Verified: May 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Radiation Dermatitis; Urtica comp.
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Skin Diseases; Wounds and Injuries; Radiation Injuries; Dermatitis; Radiodermatitis
• Other Study ID Numbers: 211820931

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No
• IPD Plan Description: Individual Patient data will not be shared.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No