TAPIR: The Assessment of Prednisone In Remission Trial - Centers of Excellence Approach

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

This study is a multi-center randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effects of using low-dose prednisone as compared to stopping prednisone treatment entirely. Participants will be randomized 1:1 to taper their prednisone dose down to 5 mg/day or to 0 mg/day for the duration of the study (approximately six months) or until a study endpoint.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Granulomatosis With Polyangiitis	Drug: 5 mg Prednisone Drug: 0 mg Prednisone	Phase 3

Detailed Description

Patients with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA, Wegener's) will be recruited at one of the Vasculitis Centers of Excellence. Participants will be randomized 1:1 either to taper their prednisone dose down to 5 mg/day according to a standardized schedule and stay at 5 mg/day of prednisone for the duration of the study or until a study endpoint, or taper their prednisone dose down to 0 mg/day using a standard schedule and stay at 0 mg/day for the duration of the study or until a study endpoint. All study participants will be followed for 6 months (from reaching a prednisone dose of 5 mg/day) or until an increase of prednisone dose (after randomization) occurs, whichever comes first.

Participants will have up to four study visits, a screening visit (visit 1), a baseline (visit 2), a month 3 visit (visit 3) and a month 6 or flare visit (visit 3) and up to two follow-up phone calls from the study coordinator at randomization and at month 1 (randomization and 1 month phone call may be combined if randomization occurs at month 1).

This study is a project of the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC) funded through the National Institutes of Health Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network (RDCRN) with the purpose of promoting vasculitis research. The VCRC is the major clinical research infrastructure in North America for the study of vasculitis, and eight VCRC Centers of Excellence will be recruiting for this study.

Study Design

Study Type:

Interventional

Anticipated Enrollment :

159 participants

Allocation:

Randomized

Intervention Model:

Parallel Assignment

Masking:

None (Open Label)

Primary Purpose:

Treatment

Official Title:

The Assessment of Prednisone In Remission Trial (TAPIR) - Centers of Excellence Approach

Actual Study Start Date :

Feb 1, 2014

Anticipated Primary Completion Date :

Sep 1, 2022

Anticipated Study Completion Date :

Dec 1, 2022

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: 5 mg Prednisone Subjects will be randomized to a prednisone dose of 5 mg per day for a 6 month period.	Drug: 5 mg Prednisone Subjects will remain on daily prednisone dose of 5 mg Other Names: •5 mg/day glucocorticoids •5 mg/day prednisone •5 mg/day steroids
Experimental: 0 mg Prednisone Subjects will be randomized to taper their prednisone dose from 5 mg per day to 0 mg per day for a 6 month period.	Drug: 0 mg Prednisone Subjects will taper their prednisone dose from 5 mg per day to 0 mg per day

Arm

Intervention/Treatment

Experimental: 5 mg Prednisone

Subjects will be randomized to a prednisone dose of 5 mg per day for a 6 month period.

Drug: 5 mg Prednisone

Subjects will remain on daily prednisone dose of 5 mg

Other Names:

•5 mg/day glucocorticoids

•5 mg/day prednisone

•5 mg/day steroids

Experimental: 0 mg Prednisone

Subjects will be randomized to taper their prednisone dose from 5 mg per day to 0 mg per day for a 6 month period.

Drug: 0 mg Prednisone

Subjects will taper their prednisone dose from 5 mg per day to 0 mg per day

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Physician decision to increase glucocorticoids for disease relapse. [Six months]

Secondary Outcome Measures

Time to disease flare. [6 months]
Safety outcomes. [6 months]
Rate and type of serious adverse events and infections.
Protocol performance at VCRC Centers of Excellence. [6 months]
Evaluation of patient characteristics, protocol compliance, participant retention, data completeness, timeliness of data entry, and data accuracy.
Health-related quality of life survey [Measured at baseline and end of the study]
Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Assessment
Health-related quality of life surveys [Measured at baseline and the end of the study]
Measured by Short Form-36
Health-related quality of life surveys [Measured at baseline, month 3, and end of the study]
Measured by a Patient Global Assessment.

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years and Older

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Inclusion Criteria:

Established diagnosis of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) where patients will need to meet at least 2 of the 5 for the classification of GPA, at least one of which must be criterion d or e:

The modified American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria are:

Nasal or oral inflammation, defined as the development of painful or painless oral ulcers or purulent or bloody nasal discharge.
Abnormal chest radiograph, defined as the presence of nodules, fixed infiltrates, or cavities.
Active urinary sediment, defined as microscopic hematuria (>5 red blood cells per high power field) or red blood cell casts.
Granulomatosis inflammation on biopsy, defined as histologic changes showing granulomatous inflammation within the wall of an artery or in the perivascular or extravascular area. Note: Pauci-immune glomerulonephritis seen on kidney biopsy will suffice for this criterion.
Positive anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) test specific for proteinase-3 measures by enzyme-linked immunoassay.

Patients who are myeloperoxidase (MPO) positive or ANCA negative are still eligible for this study if they meet the criteria above and are felt to have GPA.

Active disease within the prior 12 months (initial presentation or relapse) that at time of active disease required treatment with prednisone >20 mg/day.
Disease remission at time of enrollment.
Prednisone dose at time of enrollment of ≥ 5 mg/day and ≤ 20 mg/day.
Participant age of 18 years or greater.
If the patient is taking an immunosuppressive medication agent other than prednisone (maintenance agent) then the maintenance agent must be at a stable dose for one month prior to enrollment with no plans by the treating physician to change the dose (other than for safety purposes/toxicity) for the duration of the study (through the month 6 visit or early termination). Acceptable maintenance agents include azathioprine, leflunomide, 6-mercaptopurine, methotrexate, mycophenolate mofetil, mycophenolate sodium, or rituximab. Patients may be on trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX) for use as either a maintenance agent or for prophylaxis for infection. TMP/SMX may be used in combination with other drugs.

6.1 If the patient is regularly taking trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole at any dose then the patient is eligible if there no plans by the treating physician to change the dose after enrollment (other than dose reduction or discontinuation for safety purposes/toxicity) for the duration of the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

Comorbid condition that has moderate likelihood of requiring a course of prednisone within one year of enrollment (e.g. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, adrenal insufficiency).

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	University of Kansas Medical Center	Kansas City	Kansas	United States	66160
2	Brigham and Women's Hospital	Boston	Massachusetts	United States	02215
3	Mayo Clinic	Rochester	Minnesota	United States	55905
4	Cleveland Clinic	Cleveland	Ohio	United States	44195
5	University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	United States	19104
6	University of Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania	United States	15261
7	University of Utah	Salt Lake City	Utah	United States	84112
8	St. Joseph's Healthcare	Hamilton	Ontario	Canada
9	Mount Sinai Hospital	Toronto	Ontario	Canada	M5T 3L9