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CompletedNCT04572412Updated Nov 10, 2022

Low Dose Lung Radiotherapy to Treat COVID-19 Pneumonia

An interventional study of Low dose Radiotherapy in Covid19, sponsored by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Completed at 1 site in United Kingdom. Open to participants aged 50 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-11-10.

Sponsored by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
2
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
50 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The purpose of this study is to document the feasibility and tolerability of low dose thoracic radiotherapy in patients with WHO level 5 COVID 19 infections.

Read the detailed description

Subjects will be identified following admission to hospital who test positive for COVID-19 infection. They will then be informed and consented, and eligibility confirmed and registered to study. Following this the first, sentinel patient, will be treated with 0.5Gy dose radiotherapy to cover the lungs, with heterogeneity correction. A further 0.5Gy dose can be repeated within 96 hours. There shall then be a 7 day gap prior to recruiting patient 2. The remaining patients will be recruited, treated and observed in cohorts of 3.

The patients shall then be followed up at 48 hours post Radiotherapy, 7 days post radiotherapy and 29 days post radiotherapy. With assessment of Physiological parameters, survival status, laboratory testing and imaging performed on follow up at 7 and 29 days.

02

Conditions studied

  • Covid19

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Keywords

  • SARS-CoV-2
03

In context

COVID-19

7,990 studies on the registry are indexed under COVID-19; 466 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 2 is below the median of 102 across 4,364 interventional studies indexed under COVID-19.

Browse COVID-19 studies →

Lead sponsor

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the lead sponsor of 10 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
50 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

  • Age ≥ 50 years.
  • Patients have symptoms of COVID-19 infection as per WHO guidelines (e.g. cough, fever, dyspnea, etc.) for under 5 days from hospital admission.
  • Patients are hospitalized and meet the criteria for WHO level 5 COVID pneumonia. In addition:
  • SpO2 \<94% on Room Air;
  • Respiratory rate >20 Breaths per minute on Room Air.
  • Laboratory confirmed COVID-19 infection based on PCR.
  • Patients need ward-based oxygen between 28 to 40%.
  • Patients able to provide witnessed verbal .
  • Patient is free of other severe medical conditions that would preclude radiotherapy treatment (e.g. severe recent CVA).

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant or lactating women.
  • Presence of secondary infection with procalcitonin assessment at baseline.
  • Patient is generating aerosols e.g. use of CPAP device.
  • Hereditary syndromes known to have increase sensitivity to Radiotherapy including, but not limited to, ataxia-telangiectasia, and Njemgen Breakage Syndrome.
  • History of prior thoracic radiotherapy.
  • Inability to undergo radiotherapy for any reason as determined by the treating medical team.
  • Alternative diagnosis for lung compromise unrelated to COVID-19 / deemed more likely than COVID-19 related lung compromise.
  • Inability to consent directly.
  • If patient has participated in any other COVID-19 therapy study within the last month (4 weeks).
  • Pre-existing generalized pulmonary fibrosis.
  • Known prior systemic use of the following drugs within the last 6 months: Bleomycin, Carmustine, Methotrexate, Busulfan, Cyclophosphamide, or Amiodarone.
  • History of lung lobectomy or pneumonectomy.
  • Known history of pulmonary sarcoidosis, Wegener's Granulomatosis, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, or other disease affecting lungs.
  • Symptomatic congestive heart failure within the past 6 months including during hospitalization.
  • History of recent or current receiving any cytotoxic chemotherapy or immunotherapy within the past 6 months.
  • Bone marrow transplantation.
  • Latent tuberculosis.
  • Any solid organ transplant (renal, cardiac, liver, lung) requiring therapy.
  • Septic shock and organ dysfunction.
  • Severe ARDS P/F ratio ≤100mmHg.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

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.

Autoimmune disease

A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.

Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

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.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Health services research
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
2 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Low Dose Radiotherapy

    Low Dose Radiotherapy

    Radiation: Low dose Radiotherapy

Interventions

  • RadiationLow dose Radiotherapy

    External Beam irradiation, single fraction of 0.5Gy, to be delivered within 48 hours of enrolment to study. With field to cover as close to lung edges as AP/PA technique allows. A further 0.5GY to the thorax given up to 96 hours apart from first fraction is permitted, if a patient had either (a) responded to the first dose but then deteriorated, however remaining better than baseline level or (b) stabilized after first dose but not fully improved.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Feasibility of Recruitment

    Feasibility to recruit to the study.

    Time frame: 6 months

  2. Tolerability of Low dose Radiotherapy

    Proportion of patients with no decline in PaO2/FiO2 ratio (P/F Ratio) at 48 hours after each fraction of radiotherapy

    Time frame: 48 hours

Secondary outcomes

  1. Withdrawal

    The number of patients who withdraw from the study

    Time frame: 6 months

  2. Adverse events

    The number of Grade 4 or higher CTCAE v5 (apart from asymptomatic lymphopenia) adverse events reported

    Time frame: 1 month

  3. Feasibility of biochemical analysis

    Ability to perform lymphocyte subset, IL-6, and IL-10 analysis at baseline and 7 days post last fraction of radiotherapy

    Time frame: 1 week

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS
    Preston, United Kingdom
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Calabrese EJ, Dhawan G. How radiotherapy was historically used to treat pneumonia: could it be useful today? Yale J Biol Med. 2013 Dec 13;86(4):555-70. PubMed 24348219 ↗
  • Lara PC, Burgos J, Macias D. Low dose lung radiotherapy for COVID-19 pneumonia. The rationale for a cost-effective anti-inflammatory treatment. Clin Transl Radiat Oncol. 2020 Apr 25;23:27-29. doi: 10.1016/j.ctro.2020.04.006. eCollection 2020 Jul. PubMed 32373721 ↗
  • Hadjiyiannakis D, Dimitroyannis D, Eastlake L, Peedell C, Tripathi L, Simcock R, Vyas A, Deutsch E, Chalmers AJ. Personal View: Low-Dose Lung Radiotherapy Should be Evaluated as a Treatment for Severe COVID-19 Lung Disease. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2021 Jan;33(1):e64-e68. doi: 10.1016/j.clon.2020.08.003. Epub 2020 Aug 14. No abstract available. PubMed 32829986 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — All data will be kept anonymized and confidential. Data will be held securely for 15 years pending further study.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Nov 10, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04572412
Lead sponsor
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Collaborators
NIHR Lancashire Clinical Research Facility
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Oct 1, 2020
Start date
Nov 25, 2020
Primary completion
Jun 30, 2022
Completion
Jun 30, 2022
Last update
Nov 10, 2022

Study contacts

Dennis Hadjiyiannakis
principal investigator · LTHTR
Aashish Vyas
principal investigator · LTHTR

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
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 Nov 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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