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CompletedNCT01763580T-OPTIMUMUpdated Oct 31, 2024

A Study to Evaluate the Effect of Tacrolimus and Corticosteroid Combination Therapy in Patients With Minimal Change Nephrotic Syndrome

A Phase 4 interventional study of Tacrolimus and Prednisolone in MCNS and Minimal Change Nephrotic Syndrome (MCNS), sponsored by Astellas Pharma Korea, Inc.. Completed at 1 site in Korea, Republic of. Open to participants aged 16 Years to 78 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-10-31.

Sponsored by Astellas Pharma Korea, Inc. (part of Astellas Pharma Inc) · Phase 4, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 4 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Jul 2012, registered Dec 2012).
Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
144
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
16 Years to 78 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

To compare the therapeutic effect of tacrolimus in combination with low-dose corticosteroid with high-dose corticosteroid alone in patients with minimal-change nephrotic syndrome.

02

Conditions studied

  • MCNS
  • Minimal Change Nephrotic Syndrome (MCNS)

Keywords

  • Glomerulonephritis
  • Tacrolimus
  • Nephrotic syndrome
03

In context

Nephrosis, Lipoid

75 studies on the registry are indexed under Nephrosis, Lipoid; 32 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 144 is above the median of 49 across 46 interventional studies indexed under Nephrosis, Lipoid.

Browse Nephrosis, Lipoid studies →

Lead sponsor

Astellas Pharma Korea, Inc. is the lead sponsor of 19 studies on the registry; 3 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
16 Years to 78 Years
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

  • patients who have been diagnosed with initial or primary minimal-change nephrotic syndrome
  • patients whose urine protein-creatinine ratio (UPCR) is more than 3.0

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • patients whose is less than 30 ml/min/1.73 m2
  • patients who were treated with , such as tacrolimus, cyclosporine, cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan), mizoribine (Bredinin), levamisole, azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil, or rituximab, within two weeks before the study
  • patients to whom more than 10 mg prednisolone or an equivalent dose of was administered daily within two weeks before the study
  • patients who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning to be pregnant or to breastfeed within six months after the study completion, or who cannot or do not want to use any method
  • patients who are hypersensitive to the drug or to macrolide, such as azithromycin, clarithromycin, or roxithromycin
  • patients who were treated with a within four weeks before the study
  • patients whose liver panel laboratory test result is three times the normal range, or acute hepatitis patients whose serum has been clinically significantly higher than 3.6 mg/dL for more than 1 month
  • patients who have a significant general disease that makes it inappropriate for them to participate in this study as adjudged by the investigator (e.g., cardiovascular-acute myocardial infarction, heart failure [classified as more than {NYHA} class III], hepatic/gastrointestinal/neurologic disease, blood disorder, cancer, infection, renal disorder other than minimal-change nephrotic syndrome, rheumatic arthritis with pneumonia interstitials)
  • patients who have genetic problems such as galactose intolerance, Lapp lactose deficiency, or glucose-galactose malabsorption
  • patients to whom another investigational drug was administered within 30 days from the enrollment in the study
  • patients who participated in the past phases of this study
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(9)

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.

Relapsed and refractory

Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.

GFR and eGFR (kidney filtering)

GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².

Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

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.

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.

Live vaccines

Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.

Bilirubin

A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.

Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.

NYHA class (heart failure)

The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.

I
No limits: ordinary activity causes no undue tiredness or breathlessness.
II
Slight limits: comfortable at rest, ordinary activity causes symptoms.
III
Marked limits: comfortable at rest, less than ordinary activity causes symptoms.
IV
Symptoms even at rest; any activity makes them worse.

Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
144 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Tacrolimus with low-dose corticosteroid

    Oral

    Drug: Tacrolimus · Drug: Prednisolone

  • Active comparator
    High-dose corticosteroid alone

    Oral

    Drug: Prednisolone

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. The percentage of subjects who show a decreased UPCR (Urine Protein Creatinine Rate) of less than 0.2

    Time frame: up to 8 weeks after treatment

Secondary outcomes

  1. The period until the UPCR is decreased below 0.2

    Time frame: up to 8 weeks after treatment

  2. The percentage of subjects who show relapse after the remission

    Time frame: up to 24 weeks

  3. The period until the relapse happens from the complete remission

    Time frame: up to 24 weeks

  4. Safety assessed by the incidence of adverse events, labo-tests, vital signs, ECGs and chest X-rays

    Time frame: up to 24 weeks

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Seoul, Korea, Republic of
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Azukaitis K, Palmer SC, Strippoli GF, Hodson EM. Interventions for minimal change disease in adults with nephrotic syndrome. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2022 Mar 1;3(3):CD001537. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001537.pub5. PubMed 35230699 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — Access to anonymized individual participant level data will not be provided for this trial. Further details on Astellas' data sharing policy can be found at https://www.clinicaltrials.astellas.com/transparency/.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Ran from Jul 2012 to primary completion in May 2017, 57 months.

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

Registered
Dec 6, 2012
First posted
Jan 9, 2013
StartActual
Jul 16, 2012
Primary completionActual
May 2, 2017
CompletionActual
Aug 21, 2017
Last update
Oct 31, 2024
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 Oct 31, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01763580
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jan 9, 2013
Start date
Jul 16, 2012
Primary completion
May 2, 2017
Completion
Aug 21, 2017
Last update
Oct 31, 2024

Study contacts

Medical Director
study director · Astellas Pharma Inc

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2024. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Studies of the drug tested here: Tacrolimus

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