ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT05181735Updated Sep 29, 2026

Study Evaluating Combination of Luspatercept in LR-MDS Without RS Having Failed or Being Ineligible to ESA

A Phase 1/2 interventional study of Luspatercept Injection [Reblozyl] and Eprex in MDS and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, sponsored by Groupe Francophone des Myelodysplasies. Recruiting at 41 sites in 2 countries. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-29.

Sponsored by Groupe Francophone des Myelodysplasies · Phase 1/2, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Started May 2022; still recruiting 4 years 5 months later.
Updated Sep 29, 2026Site recruiting status changed1 site addedGo to Updates ↓
Phase
Phase 1/2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
150
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Study of the combination of luspatercept in low-risk myelodysplastic syndrom (LR-MDS) without ring sideroblasts (RS) having failed or being ineligible to ESA

Read the detailed description

Part A of the trial=Dose-finding Study: Determination the optimal dose level in terms of both toxicity and efficacy for luspatercept + ESA

Part B : Determination of the superiority and efficacy of the association Luspatercept+ESA (erythroipoiesis Stimulating Agent) over luspatercept alone in patients with lower risk MDS who failed to achieve a response or who subsequently relapsed after ESA, wihtout disease progression

02

Conditions studied

  • MDS
  • Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Keywords

  • MDS
  • LR-MDS
  • Luspatercept
  • Eprex
  • ESA
03

In context

Myelodysplastic Syndromes

1,997 studies on the registry are indexed under Myelodysplastic Syndromes; 324 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 150 is above the median of 40 across 1,611 interventional studies indexed under Myelodysplastic Syndromes.

Browse Myelodysplastic Syndromes studies →

Lead sponsor

Groupe Francophone des Myelodysplasies is the lead sponsor of 44 studies on the registry; 5 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 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

Patients must meet all of the following criteria to participate in the study:

  • Myelodysplastic syndrome according to current WHO classification
  • Age ≥ 18 years
  • Patients with lower risk MDS according to IPSS classification (LOW, INT-1) without RS who failed to achieved a response or who subsequently relapse after ESA (at least 60000 U EPO-a over at least 12weeks or equivalent), without disease progression (or ineligible to ESA defined by EPO > 500 UI/l)
  • \< 9 gr/dl or Transfusion dependant (at least 3 RBCs in 16 wk in at least 2 transfusion episodes)
  • Non del(5q) syndrome
  • Adequat renal function, defined by creatinine less than 1.5 times the , ≥ 40 mL/min ( formula).
  • Adequat liver function, defined by total and transaminases less than 1.5 times the upper limit of normal.
  • Patient is not known to be to transfusions.
  • Written .
  • Patient must understand and voluntarily sign consent form.
  • Patient must be able to adhere to the visit schedule as outlined in the study and follow protocol requirements.
  • performance status 0-2 at the time of screening.
  • A FCBP (female of ) for this study was defined as a sexually mature woman who: (1) had not undergone a hysterectomy or bilateral oophorectomy; or (2) had not been naturally (amenorrhea following cancer therapy did not rule out childbearing potential) for at least 24 consecutive months (ie, has had menses at any time in the preceding 24 consecutive months). A FCBP participating in the study must:

    • Have had 2 negative pregnancy tests as verified by the investigator prior to starting IP (unless the screening pregnancy test was done within 72 hours of Cycle 1 Day 1). She must have had agreed to ongoing a monthly pregnancy testing during the course of the study and after EOT
    • If sexually active, agreed to have used, and been able to comply with, highly effective ** without interruption, 5 weeks prior to starting IP, during treatment with IP (including dose interruptions), and for 12 weeks after discontinuation of IP.
    • ** Highly effective contraception was defined in this protocol as the following (information also appeared in the ICF): Hormonal contraception (eg, birth control pills, injection, implant, transdermal patch, vaginal ring), intrauterine device, tubal ligation (tying your tubes), or a partner with a vasectomy
  • Male subjects must: Have agreed to use a condom, defined as a male latex condom or nonlatex condom NOT made out of natural (animal) membrane (eg, polyurethane), during sexual contact with a pregnant female or a FCBP while participating in the study, during dose interruptions, and for at least 12 weeks following IP discontinuation, even if he had undergone a successful vasectomy

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

A patient meeting any of the following criteria is not eligible to participate in the study:

  • Severe infection or any other uncontrolled severe condition.
  • Uncontrolled hypertension
  • Significant cardiac disease - Class III or IV or having suffered a myocardial infarction in the last 6 months.
  • del(5q) syndrome
  • Use of agents within 30 days or any anticancer therapy (including IMiD) within 2 weeks before the study entry with the exception of hydroxyurea. The patient must have recovered at least a grade 1 from all acute toxicity from any previous therapy.
  • Use of EPO within 4 weeks before the study entry
  • Active cancer, or cancer during the year prior to trial entry other than basal cell carcinoma, or carcinoma in situ of the cervix or breast.
  • Patient already enrolled in another therapeutic trial of an investigational drug.
  • Known infection or active or C.
  • Women who are or could become pregnant or who are currently breastfeeding.
  • Any medical or psychiatric that would prevent the patient from understanding and signing the form.
  • Patient eligible for stem cell transplantation.
  • Known allergies to luspatercept or EPO or any of its .
  • No affiliation to a health insurance system.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(19)

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.

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).

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

Creatinine clearance (CrCl)

How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

ECOG performance status

A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Allogeneic and autologous transplant

Stem cell (bone marrow) transplants. Allogeneic uses cells from a donor; autologous uses your own cells, collected earlier and given back.

Excipients

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

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 1 / Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
150 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Arm A (Luspatercept alone)

    Patients will receive Luspatercept 1mg/kg (every 3 weeks) with titration up to max of 1.75mg/kg, subcutaneously on day 1 of each 21 day cycle (every three weeks).

    Drug: Luspatercept Injection [Reblozyl]

  • Experimental
    Arm B (Luspatercept + EPREX)

    Patients will receive Luspatercept (at the selected dose according to part A) subcutaneously on day 1 of each 21 day cycle (every three weeks) AND Epoetin alfa: At the selected dose (in part A) per week, subcutaneously, every week Doses schedules Part A : * Level 1 : Luspatercept 0.8 mg/kg + EPREX 30000 UI * Level 2 : Luspatercept 1.33 mg/kg + EPREX 30000 UI * Level 3 : Luspatercept 1.75mg/kg + EPREX 30000 UI * Level 4 : Luspatercept 1.75mg/kg + EPREX 60000 UI

    Drug: Luspatercept Injection [Reblozyl] · Drug: Eprex

Interventions

  • All patients will receive Luspatercept subcutaneously on day 1 of each 21 day cycle (every 3 weeks) at the selected dose according to part A : 1.75mg/kg or 1.33 mg/kg or 0.8 mg/kg

    Also known as: ACE-536

  • DrugEprex

    Epoietin alfa will be adminstered as a subcutaneous injection at the selected dose according to part A : 30 000 UI/week or 60 000 UI/week, every week

    Also known as: Epoietin alfa

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Part A : Dose-finding study

    To determine the optimal dose level in terms of both toxicity and efficacy for luspatercept + EPO

    Time frame: Evaluation of Dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) at Day 21 of cycle 1 for non-hematological toxicity , up to day 42 for hematological toxicity

  2. Part B : Benefit of the association over the monotherapy

    To determine, at Week 25, the superiority and efficacy of luspatercept + ESA over luspatecept alone

    Time frame: At week 25

Secondary outcomes

  1. Response rate

    To determine the response rate (complete response (CR) +Partial Response (PR) + stable disease with Hematological Improvment (HI) according to IWG 2006 criteria) in each arm

    Time frame: 3 months

  2. Response duration

    Duration of response ends with date loss of response, relapse or death whichever occurs first

    Time frame: 24 months

  3. Overall survival

    Overall survival time ends for patients who die during the follow up period with the date of death and for patients who do not die during the follow up period with the date when the patient was last seen to be alive

    Time frame: 30 months

07

Study locations

31 of 41 sites recruiting
08

Timeline

1 registry update since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Started May 2022 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2028, 79 months after the start.

Of 68 non-industry phase 1/2 interventional studies under Myelodysplastic Syndromes, half reached primary completion within 72 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 49 and three quarters within 142. This study's planned 79 months is close to that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 109 studies reached it within 78 months; a quarter within 49 and three quarters within 110.

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

Registered
Dec 20, 2021
First posted
Jan 6, 2022
StartActual
May 18, 2022
Primary completionEst.
Dec 19, 2028
CompletionEst.
Jun 19, 2029
Last update
Sep 29, 2026
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.
Sites
1 site added. 2 sites changed recruiting status (2 now recruiting)
Show 2 sites
  • Centre Hospitalier de Versailles · Le Chesnay, FranceNot yet recruiting→Recruiting
  • AOU Careggi · Florence, ItalyNot yet recruiting→Recruiting
Show site
  • Hôpital de Compiègne · Compiègne, France
Sep 29, 2026
Show all 1 update
  1. Sep 29, 2026
    1 site added. 2 sites changed recruiting status (2 now recruiting)
    Show 2 sites
    • Centre Hospitalier de Versailles · Le Chesnay, FranceNot yet recruiting→Recruiting
    • AOU Careggi · Florence, ItalyNot yet recruiting→Recruiting
    Show site
    • Hôpital de Compiègne · Compiègne, France
    + 1 other change: verification date

From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05181735
Lead sponsor
Groupe Francophone des Myelodysplasies
Collaborators
Celgene
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jan 6, 2022
Start date
May 18, 2022
Primary completion
Dec 19, 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Jun 19, 2029 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 29, 2026

Study contacts

Fatiha CHERMAT
Contact
fatiha.chermat-ext@aphp.fr
+33 1 71 20 70 59
Karine LEMARIE
Contact
karine.lemarie-ext@aphp.fr
+33 1 71 20 70 54
Lionel ADES, Pr.
principal investigator · Hôpital Saint Louis

Oversight

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

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Studies of the drug tested here: Epoetin Alfa

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