ClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT04944524Updated Jul 9, 2021

Comparison of Tofacitinib and Methotrexate in the Maintained Treatment of GPA

A Phase 4 interventional study of Tofacitinib and Methotrexate in Granulomatosis With Polyangiitis, sponsored by Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital. Status unknown at 1 site in China. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-07-09.

Sponsored by Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital · Phase 4, Interventional, and Treatment

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Jun 2021), so the status shown — last known as Recruiting — may be out of date.

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Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
66
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The aim of this study is to identify the optimal maintenance therapy for granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) by comparing the MTX (standard regimen) with Tofacitinib in terms of efficacy, i.e. in preventing relapses.

Read the detailed description

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), a systemic small-vessel vasculitis, could involve multiple tissues and organs. Remission of GPA can be obtained in approximately 80% of the patients with a combination of corticosteroids and cyclophosphamide. However, relapses are frequent and remain a challenge. The optimal drug for maintenance treatment is not determined. Tofacitinib is a Jak inhibitor which has been proved to be effective in multiple inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. But the efficiency and safety of tofacitinib in treating GPA remains unclear yet. In the present randomized trial, the comparison of MTX (standard regimen) with Tofacitinib in terms of efficacy, i.e. in preventing relapses will be conducted.

02

Conditions studied

  • Granulomatosis With Polyangiitis
03

In context

Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis

104 studies on the registry are indexed under Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis; 16 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 66 is close to the median of 70 across 69 interventional studies indexed under Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis.

Browse Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis studies →

Lead sponsor

Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital is the lead sponsor of 652 studies on the registry; 291 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 75 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

  1. Patients with newly diagnosed or relapsing Granulomatosis with polyangiitis met the criteria of 1990 ACR and 2012 Chapel Hill criteria
  2. Patients in disease flare have achieved remission using a treatment combining and IV cyclophosphamide
  3. Remission is defined as a Birmingham Vasculitis Activity/ Wegener's granulomatosis (BVAS/WG) score of 0 and receiving 10 mg/day of oral prednisone (or equivalent) at least 2 weeks
  4. Age 18 to 75 years
  5. Written obtained before taking part in the study

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Severe GPA defined as potentially organ- or life-threatening disease (i.e. alveolar haemorrhage, heart failure caused by myocarditis or pericarditis, progressive neurological symptoms, deaf, blindness, et al.)
  2. Serum creatinine>120umol/L or proteinuria>1.0g/d
  3. Failure to response after treatment with methotrexate or cyclophosphamide previously
  4. Receipt of a JAKi therapy previously
  5. Co-existence of another systemic disease
  6. Secondary vasculitis (following neoplastic disease, an infection or antithyroid drugs)
  7. or history of malignancy
  8. Infection by , , or tuberculosis
  9. Severe uncontrolled cardiovascular, pulmonary, liver, gastrointestinal, endocrine, hematological, neurological, or psychiatric diseases that are not related to systemic vasculitis
  10. Allergic to any of the medication (cyclophosphamide, , tofacitinib, methotrexate)
  11. Blood dyscrasias including confirmed: \<9 g/dL or Hematocrit \<30%; White blood cell count \<3.0 x 109/L; \<1.5 x 109/L; count \<100 x 109/L; or aspartate aminotransferase or total >1.5 upper normal limit; Estimated \<60ml/min/1.73m2
  12. Any medical or psychiatric disorder which, in the investigator's opinion, may prevent the administration of treatment and patient follow-up according to the protocol, and/or which may expose the patient to a too greater risk of an adverse effect.
  13. Incapacity or refusal to understand or sign the form.
  14. Pregnancy, breastfeeding.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(13)

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.

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.

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.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

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).

Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)

The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.

It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

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.

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.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
66 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Tofactitinib

    partcipants would be given one tablet of tofacitinib (5mg per tablet), twice per day, the treatment duration will last 12 months during the whole follow-up period.

    Drug: Tofacitinib

  • Active comparator
    Methotrexate

    partcipants would be given tablets of methotrexate (2.5mg per tablet) from the initial dose of 15mg (6 tablets) and add to the maximal and optimal dose of 20mg (8 tablets), once per week, the treatment duration will last 12 months during the whole follow-up period.

    Drug: Methotrexate

Interventions

  • 1. Tofacitinib 5mg twice a day for 12months; 2. Basic treatment with prednisone. (1) the initial dose of prednisone (or equivalent): 0.8mg/kg/day. (2) Glucocorticoids tapering: after two weeks' usage of initial glucocorticoids dose, glucocorticoids can be tapered if there's no disease activity (BVAS/WG=0) or at least 50% reduction of BVAS/WG and no new manifestations. Prednisone (or equivalent) was reduced to 10mg/d at the time of randomization.

    Also known as: Tof

  • 1. Methotrexate (15 mg/week initially and progressively increased every week by 2.5 mg, to a maximum and optimal dose of 20 mg/week) 2. Basic treatment with prednisone. (1) the initial dose of prednisone (or equivalent): 0.8mg/kg/day. (2) Glucocorticoids tapering: after two weeks' usage of initial glucocorticoids dose, glucocorticoids can be tapered if there's no disease activity (BVAS/WG=0) or at least 50% reduction of BVAS/WG and no new manifestations. Prednisone (or equivalent) was reduced to 10mg/d at the time of randomization.

    Also known as: MTX

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Relapse rate (major or minor) at 12 months

    The major or minor relapse rate equals to the patients with relapse/ total participants ( A major relapse should be defined as the re-occurrence or new onset of potentially organ- or life-threatening disease activity that cannot be treated with an increase of GC alone and requires further escalation of treatment. All other relapses should be classified as minor.)

    Time frame: From the enrollment to the the end of 12 month.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Time to first relapse.

    The time period from the baseline to the time when the first relapse occurred.

    Time frame: From the enrollment to the the end of 12 month.

  2. Number of relapse

    Total times of relapse during the whole period of 12-month follow-up.

    Time frame: From the enrollment to the the end of 12 month.

  3. Cumulative dosage of corticosteroids

    The cumulative dosage of corticosteroids during the whole period of 12-month follow-up. The cumulative dosage = Sum of different dose of prednisone every day.

    Time frame: From the enrollment to the the end of 12 month.

  4. Adverse events

    All the kinds of adverse event related to the treatment and the disease itself will be recorded.

    Time frame: From the enrollment to the the end of 12 month.

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Department of Rheumatology in Zhongshan hospital, Fudan University
    Shanghai, Shanghai 200032, China
    Recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Started Jul 2021 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Jul 2024, 36 months after the start.

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

Registered
Jun 22, 2021
First posted
Jun 29, 2021
StartActual
Jul 1, 2021
Primary completionEst.
Jul 1, 2024
CompletionEst.
Jul 1, 2024
Last update
Jul 9, 2021
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 Jul 9, 2021, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04944524
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jun 29, 2021
Start date
Jul 1, 2021
Primary completion
Jul 1, 2024 (estimated)
Completion
Jul 1, 2024 (estimated)
Last update
Jul 9, 2021

Study contacts

Lindi Jiang, PhD
Contact
zsh-rheum@hotmail.com
+8602164041990 ext. 2471
Yun Liu, PhD
Contact
chenry825@hotmail.com
+8602164041990 ext. 2471
Lindi Jiang, PhD
study chair · Fudan University

Oversight

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

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This study is status unknown, as verified in Jun 2021. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Studies of the drug tested here: Tofacitinib

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