Belatacept With Early Steroid Withdrawal rATG and Everolimus in Renal Transplantation (BETTER Trial) (BETTER)

A Randomized, Multicenter Study of Belatacept, Everolimus, rATG and Early Steroid Withdrawal Versus Belatacept, Mycophenolate, rATG and Chronic Steroids in Renal Transplantation

This study is designed to determine the safety and efficacy of two calcineurin inhibitor free treatment groups 1) a belatacept, everolimus and early corticosteroid withdrawal (ECSWD) immunosuppressive regimen with rabbit antithymocyte globulin induction (rATG) and 2) a belatacept, mycophenolate, chronic steroid regimen with rATG and compare to historical controls of tacrolimus-based and belatacept-based regimens in combination with rATG induction, mycophenolate, and ESWD in renal transplant recipients.

The purpose is to evaluate the effect of 2 regimens (rATG induction/belatacept/everolimus/ESWD and rATG induction/belatacept/mycophenolate/CS) on the composite of patient death, graft loss, or eGFR (MDRD) < 45 mL/min/1.73m2 at Month 12 post-transplantation compared to historical controls of the BEST Trial (groups B and C).

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Kidney Transplant Rejection
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Belatacept; Drug: Everolimus; Drug: rabbit antithymocyte globulin; Drug: mycophenolate mofetil; Drug: corticosteroids

Detailed Description

The BETTER trial is designed to determine the safety and efficacy of two calcineurin inhibitor free treatment groups 1) a belatacept, everolimus and early corticosteroid withdrawal (ESWD) immunosuppressive regimen with rabbit antithymocyte globulin induction (rATG) and 2) a belatacept, mycophenolate, chronic steroid regimen with rATG and compare to historical controls of tacrolimus-based and belatacept-based regimens in combination with rATG induction, mycophenolate, and ESWD in renal transplant recipients.

Study Hypotheses

1. A belatacept-based immunosuppressive regimen with rATG induction, everolimus and ESWD in renal transplant recipients will lead to less risk of graft loss, patient death, or eGFR <45ml/min/1.73m2 at 12 and 24 months as compared to a tacrolimus-based immunosuppressive regimen with rATG, mycophenolate, and ESWD in renal transplant recipients (historical control from the BEST Trial-Group C).
2. A belatacept-based immunosuppressive regimen with rATG induction, everolimus and ESWD in renal transplant recipients will lead to less risk of graft loss, patient death, or eGFR <45ml/min/1.73m2 at 12 and 24 months as compared to a belatacept-based immunosuppressive regimen with rATG and mycophenolate, and ESWD in renal transplant recipients (historical control from the BEST Trial-Group B).
3. A belatacept-based immunosuppressive regimen with rATG, mycophenolate and CS in renal transplant recipients will lead to less risk of graft loss, patient death, or eGFR <45ml/min/1.73m2 at 12 and 24 months as compared to a tacrolimus-based immunosuppressive regimen with rATG, mycophenolate, and ESWD in renal transplant recipients (historical control from the BEST Trial-Group C).
4. A belatacept-based immunosuppressive regimen with rATG induction, mycophenolate and CS in renal transplant recipients will lead to less risk of graft loss, patient death, or eGFR <45ml/min/1.73m2 at 12 and 24 months as compared to a belatacept-based immunosuppressive regimen with rATG, mycophenolate, and ESWD in renal transplant recipients (historical control from the BEST Trial-Group B).

A controlled, randomized group study is accepted in renal transplantation to evaluate new immunosuppressive regimens versus the current standard of care. Although the ideal study would employ a blinded methodology with a simultaneous control group to minimize bias, the study will not be blinded and evaluates a historical control groups conducted in similar centers.

To allow comparison between studies, the primary composite endpoint of death, graft loss, or eGFR <45ml/min/1.73m2 will be analyzed similarly. The secondary and tertiary endpoints are the similar as well.

The BETTER study proposes to compare two additional treatment groups of rATG/belatacept/everolimus/ESWD (Group D) and rATG/belatacept/mycophenolate/CS (Group E) to the historical control Groups B and C.

All immunosuppressive agents are approved by the FDA for the prophylaxis of renal transplant rejection, and will be dosed and administered consistent with current clinical practice.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 120
• Phase: Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Rita R Alloway, PharmD; Phone Number: 5135581568; Email: rita.alloway@uc.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Adele R Shields, PharmD; Phone Number: 5135852145; Email: adele.rike@uc.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, 45267
      • Recruiting
      • University of Cincinnati
      • Contact: Rita R Alloway, PharmD; Phone Number: 513-558-1568; Email: rita.alloway@uc.edu
    • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, 45219
      • Recruiting
      • The Christ Hospital
      • Contact: Adele R Shields, PharmD; Phone Number: 513-585-2145; Email: adele.rike@uc.edu
      • Contact: Samantha Simmons; Phone Number: 5135850016; Email: dentonsa@ucmail.uc.edu

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

1. Male and female patients ≥ 18 years of age.
2. Patient who is receiving a renal transplant from a living or heart-beating deceased donor.
3. Female patients of child bearing potential must have a negative urine or serum pregnancy test within the past 48 hours prior to study inclusion.
4. The patient has given written informed consent to participate in the study

Exclusion criteria

1. Patient has previously received an organ transplant other than a kidney.
2. Patient is receiving an HLA identical living donor transplant.
3. Patient who is a recipient of a multiple organ transplant.
4. Patient has a most recent cytotoxic PRA of >25% or calculated PRA >50% where multiple moderate level HLA antibodies exist and in the opinion of the PI represents substantial HLA sensitization.
5. Patient with a positive T or B cell crossmatch that is primarily due to HLA antibodies.
6. Patient with a donor specific antibody (DSA) as deemed by the PI to be associated with significant risk of rejection.
7. Patient has received an ABO incompatible donor kidney.

8. The deceased donor and/or deceased donor kidney meet any of the following extended criteria for organ donation (ECD):

   1. Donor age ≥ 60 years OR
   2. Donor age 50-59 years and 1 of the following:

   i. Cerebrovascular accident (CVA) + hypertension + SCr > 1.5 mg/dL OR ii. CVA + hypertension OR iii. CVA + SCr > 1.5 mg/dL OR iv. Hypertension + SCr > 1.5 mg/dL OR c. CIT ≥ 24 hours, donor age > 10 years OR d. Donation after cardiac death (DCD)

9. Recipients will be receiving a dual or en bloc kidney transplant.
10. Donor anticipated cold ischemia is > 30 hours.
11. Recipient that is seropositive for hepatitis C virus (HCV) with detectable Hepatitis C viral load are excluded. HCV seropositive patients with a negative HCV viral load testing may be included.
12. Recipients receiving a kidney from a donor with HCV viremia (detected through nucleic acid testing or other means)
13. Recipients with a positive hepatitis B viral load or positive hepatitis B surface antigen testing within 1 year of consent.
14. Hepatitis B surface antibody negative recipients receiving a kidney from a donor seropositive for hepatitis B core antibody or hepatitis B nucleic acid.
15. Recipient or donor is known to be seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
16. Recipient who is seronegative for Epstein Barr Virus (EBV)
17. Patient has uncontrolled concomitant infection or any other unstable medical condition that could interfere with the study objectives.
18. Patients with thrombocytopenia (PLT <75,000/mm3), and/or leukopenia (WBC < 2,000/mm3), or anemia (hemoglobin < 6 g/dL) prior to study inclusion.
19. Patient is taking or has been taking an investigational drug in the 30 days prior to transplant.
20. Patient who has undergone desensitization therapy within 6 months prior to transplant.
21. Patient has a known hypersensitivity to belatacept, tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil/mycophenolic acid, everolimus, rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin, or glucocorticoids.
22. Patient is receiving chronic steroid therapy at the time of transplant.
23. Patients with a history of cancer (other than non-melanoma skin cell cancers cured by local resection) within the last 5 years, unless they have an expected disease-free survival of >95%.
24. Patient is pregnant, where pregnancy is defined as the state of a female after conception and until the termination of gestation, confirmed by positive human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) laboratory test.
25. Women of childbearing potential must use reliable contraception simultaneously, unless they are status post bilateral tubal ligation, bilateral oophorectomy, or hysterectomy.
26. Patient has any form of substance abuse, psychiatric disorder or a condition that, in the opinion of the investigator, may invalidate communication with the investigator.
27. Inability to cooperate or communicate with the investigator.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Group D Bela/EVR; rATG induction/belatacept/everolimus/early steroid withdrawal rATG 1.5mg/kg IV X 4 doses over 10 days belatacept 10mg/kg IV X 1 on POD 1, POD 5, weeks 2, 4, 8, and 12 then 5mg/kg IV X 1 on week 16 and then every 4 weeks thereafter Steroid taper x 5 days (500mg IV, 250mg IV, 125mg IV, 80mg po, 60mg po) Everolimus started within 24hours at 2mg BID and dosed to level 3-8ng/ml	Drug: Belatacept; belatacept with everolimus is experimental regimen and it is compared to the labeled regimen of belatacept with mycophenolate with steroids for prevention of rejection in renal transplant recipients; Other Names: Nulojix; Drug: Everolimus; belatacept with everolimus is experimental regimen and it is compared to the labeled regimen of belatacept with mycophenolate with steroids for prevention of rejection in renal transplant recipients; Other Names: Zortress; Drug: rabbit antithymocyte globulin; rabbit antithymocyte globulin induction for prevention of rejection; Other Names: rATG, thymoglobulin
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Group E Bela/MMF; rATG induction/belatacept/mycophenolate/chronic steroidsrATG 1.5mg/kg IV X 4 doses over 10 days belatacept 10mg/kg IV X 1 on POD 1, POD 5, weeks 2, 4, 8, and 12 then 5mg/kg IV X 1 on week 16 and then every 4 weeks thereafter Steroid taper x 5 days (500mg IV, 250mg IV, 125mg IV, 80mg po, 60mg po) and then 5mg po daily thereafter MMF 1gm BID started pre-op and then continued throughout study	Drug: Belatacept; belatacept with everolimus is experimental regimen and it is compared to the labeled regimen of belatacept with mycophenolate with steroids for prevention of rejection in renal transplant recipients; Other Names: Nulojix; Drug: rabbit antithymocyte globulin; rabbit antithymocyte globulin induction for prevention of rejection; Other Names: rATG, thymoglobulin; Drug: mycophenolate mofetil; belatacept with mycophenolate is approved regimen for prevention of rejection; Other Names: Cellcept; Drug: corticosteroids; belatacept with chronic steroids is approved regimen for prevention of rejection; Other Names: Prednisone

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Composite endpoint of patient death, graft loss, or eGFR (MDRD) < 45ml/min mL/min/1.73m2	Number of subjects with composite endpoint of either patient death, graft loss, or eGFR (MDRD) < 45 mL/min/1.73m2 at Month 12 post-transplantation compared to historical controls of the BEST Trial (groups B and C).	12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Incidence of Biopsy-proven acute rejection (BPAR) by Banff 2007 criteria stratified by type (ACR, AMR, or Mixed rejection)	To evaluate, by treatment group at 12 and 24 months incidence of various rejection types	12 and 24 months
Incidence of graft survival censored by patients who died with functioning graft	Incidence of death-censored graft survival not including any patients who died with their graft still functioning	12 and 24 months
# of Patients with eGFR (MDRD) < 30 mL/min/1.73m2	# of subjects with eGFR (MDRD) < 30 mL/min/1.73m2	12 and 24 months
# Patients with development of de novo donor specific antibody (DSA)	Patients with development of de novo donor specific antibody (DSA) after transplant	12 and 24 months
Composite endpoint of patient death, graft loss, or estimated eGFR (MDRD) < 45 mL/min/1.73m2 at Month 24 post-transplantation	Composite endpoint of patients with either death, graft loss, or estimated eGFR (MDRD) < 45 mL/min/1.73m2 at Month 24 post-transplantation	24 months
# Patients with Incidence of Infections	Incidence of infections, including CMV and BK virus	12 and 24 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Cincinnati

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): April 9, 2021
• Primary Completion (ANTICIPATED): July 1, 2023
• Study Completion (ANTICIPATED): July 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 29, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 14, 2021
• First Posted (ACTUAL): April 19, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): April 19, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 14, 2021
• Last Verified: April 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Physiological Effects of Drugs; Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action; Anti-Infective Agents; Enzyme Inhibitors; Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Antirheumatic Agents; Antineoplastic Agents; Immunosuppressive Agents; Immunologic Factors; Glucocorticoids; Hormones; Hormones, Hormone Substitutes, and Hormone Antagonists; Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Antibiotics, Antineoplastic; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors; Antitubercular Agents; Antibiotics, Antitubercular; Prednisone; Mycophenolic Acid; Everolimus; Abatacept; Thymoglobulin; Antilymphocyte Serum
• Other Study ID Numbers: IM103-423

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

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