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TerminatedNCT00220675Updated May 22, 2008

Erythropoietin Spinal Cord Compression Randomized Trial

A Phase 2/3 interventional study of Erythropoietin infusion in Nerve Compression Syndromes, sponsored by Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Terminated at 3 sites in Canada. Open to participants aged 19 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2008-05-22.

Sponsored by Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre · Phase 2/3, Interventional, and Treatment

Why this study was terminated
Insufficient accrual
Phase
Phase 2/3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
7
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
19 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

To determine whether erythropoietin, steroids and radiotherapy is safe and feasible to administer to patients with malignant spinal cord compression.

Read the detailed description

For patients with malignant spinal cord compression (MSCC) who are paraparetic or paraplegic before initiating treatment, the current treatment options provide a meager to poor chance of neurologic recovery and the prognosis is guarded. Improving the chance of ambulation after treatment for MSCC may dramatically improve patients' quality of life, decrease days spent in hospital and improve survival. Steroids appear to prevent neurologic damage from MSCC and increasing doses appear to have an increasingly protective effect, however, higher doses are limited by an increasing incidence of serious toxicity.

Recombinant human erythropoetin has been shown to improve quality of life in patients with anemia of chronic disease and animal models suggest that r-HuEPO may have a neuroprotective effect. Human studies have demonstrated increased CSF concentrations of r-HuEPO after intravenous administration, including patients with MESCC. Furthermore, there is a suggestion that patients treated with intravenous r-HuEPO, steroids and RT may recover ambulatory function to a greater degree and faster than patients not treated with r-HuEPO.

Ultimately the effect of r-HuEPO in improving neurologic, functional and quality of life outcomes will need to be tested in a properly designed, large, randomized control trial. However, in order to successfully complete this study in a timely manner, a multicenter study will need to be performed. There are logistical issues that need to be addressed when setting up a r-HuEPO infusion program.

Therefore, a multicenter, randomized phase 2 study of intravenous r-HuEPO, steroids and RT will allow the investigators to address three issues: i) confirm that the logistical issues at each center can be addressed; ii) confirm in a larger cohort of patients whether the encouraging neurologic outcomes seen in the preliminary study can be replicated across different settings when compared with a randomized control group; iii) ensure the safety of EPO in this population including overall survival and incidence of subsequent TVEs with and without EPO.

02

Conditions studied

  • Nerve Compression Syndromes

Keywords

  • Malignant extradural spinal cord compression
  • Erythropoietin
  • Neuroprotectant
  • Radiotherapy
  • Palliation
03

In context

Nerve Compression Syndromes

38 studies on the registry are indexed under Nerve Compression Syndromes; 8 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 7 is below the median of 62 across 27 interventional studies indexed under Nerve Compression Syndromes.

Browse Nerve Compression Syndromes studies →

Lead sponsor

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is the lead sponsor of 584 studies on the registry; 135 are open to participants now.

Of its 6 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 2 (33%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
19 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Adults (> 18 years old) with histopathologically confirmed cancer
  • Patients unable to ambulate independently due to paraparesis or paraplegia from malignant epidural spinal cord compression (categories 2, 3, 4 in Appendix B)
  • Radiotherapy offered for treatment of cord compression using 2000cGy in 5 fractions
  • signed
  • Females subjects must be or surgically incapable of , must be practicing an acceptable method of (i.e., hormonal contraceptives, intrauterine device or barrier and spermicide)

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Uncontrolled hypertension (systolic pressure > 160 mmHg, diastolic > 100 mmHg) or unstable cardiovascular disease
  • Previous DVT/PE or arterial embolic event
  • Patients with a > 120 g/L or Hct > 40% (for both males \& females)
  • Patients with potentially curable disease
  • Patients with \< 3 months
  • Patients who have received RT that would overlap with the planned treatment field
  • for MRI scan
  • Women who are pregnant, or who intend to become pregnant, or who are nursing
  • Patients with known ; those with a primary diagnosis of melanoma will require confirmation by CT or MRI
  • Patients with a history of poorly controlled seizure disorder
  • Patients with a known to mammalian cell-derived products or albumin
  • Patients who cannot receive adequate antithrombotic treatment, who have a hypersensitivity to the active antithrombotic substance or any of the product's
  • Patients who have participated in another device or drug trial(s), or is receiving other investigational agent(s) within the previous 30 days
  • Patients requiring neurosurgical decompression for the malignant spinal cord compression
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(11)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Postmenopausal

Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Hemoglobin (Hb)

The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).

Life expectancy

The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

Brain metastases

Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).

Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

Excipients

The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2 / Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Quadruple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
7 participants (actual)

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Overall survival

  2. Recovery of ambulation

  3. Deep vein thrombosis rate post-treatment

Secondary outcomes

  1. The time to regain ambulation

  2. Duration of ambulatory function

  3. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL, prevalence of TVE at the time of randomization

07

Study locations

3 sites
  • London Regional Health Science Center
    London, Ontario, Canada
  • Ottawa Regional Cancer Center
    Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Science Centre
    Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5, Canada
08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
Not marked actual or estimatedDates not marked actual or estimated

The record gives a start of Aug 2005, a primary completion of Jul 2007 and a completion of Jul 2007. It does not say whether these dates are actual or estimated.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Sep 20, 2005
First posted
Sep 22, 2005
Start
Aug 2005
Primary completionActual
Jul 2007
CompletionActual
Jul 2007
Last update
May 22, 2008
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on May 22, 2008, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00220675
Collaborators
Ortho Biotech, Inc.
First posted
Sep 22, 2005
Start date
Aug 2005
Primary completion
Jul 2007
Completion
Jul 2007
Last update
May 22, 2008

Study contacts

Andrew Loblaw, MD MSc
principal investigator · Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Science Centre

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is terminated, as verified in May 2008. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

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