ClinicalTrials.gg
Not yet recruitingNCT07478679Updated Mar 23, 2026

Radiation to Treat Joint Damage Caused by Cancer Immunotherapy

A Phase 1 interventional study of Low dose radiation therapy in Arthritis and Arthropathy, sponsored by University of Chicago. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 40 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-03-23.

Sponsored by University of Chicago · Phase 1, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 1
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
20
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
40 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This study will prospectively investigate the feasibility and safety of administering LDRT in patients with immunotherapy-induced inflammatory arthritis.

02

Conditions studied

  • Arthritis
  • Arthropathy

Keywords

  • Radiotherapy
  • Arthropathy
  • Immunotherapy
  • Cancet
03

In context

Arthritis

843 studies on the registry are indexed under Arthritis; 118 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 20 is below the median of 97 across 599 interventional studies indexed under Arthritis.

Browse Arthritis studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Chicago is the lead sponsor of 924 studies on the registry; 185 are open to participants now.

Of its 103 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 72 (70%) have results posted.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
40 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 have confirmed that is or unresectable and for which they are receiving single agent or combination immunotherapy or within the last 6 months.
  • Rheumatologist-established diagnosis of new onset grade 2-3 immunotherapy-induced inflammatory arthritis or activated osteoarthritis, involving one or more joints (up to 3) including but not limited to hands, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles.
  • Age ≥ 40 years.
  • performance status ≤2 ( ≥60%).
  • Patients with ability and willingness to sign consent.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • to radiation treatment, such as pregnancy, breast-feeding women and active collagen-vascular disease.
  • Women of who have positive urine or serum pregnancy test or refuse to do pregnancy test unless last menstrual cycle was >1 year prior to consent and/or clear documentation states that the patient is peri- or or there was recent supporting objective evidence of 'no pregnancy' status (e.g. blood or imaging) within 30 days prior to initiation of study treatment.
  • Have not received systemic within the last 3 months for the treatment of immune related adverse events.
  • History of prior conditions, or concurrent immune related adverse events requiring systemic .
  • Estimated less than 3 months as assessed by investigators.
  • Any condition at the discretion of investigator that will preclude participation in the study.
  • History of secondary as assessed by investigators.
  • History of radiation to affected joints as assessed by investigators.
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.

Histologically or cytologically confirmed

The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).

Your pathology report is the document that shows this.

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.

Metastases

Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.

CTCAE grade

The US National Cancer Institute’s scale of how severe an adverse event is — any unwanted medical event during a study, such as a symptom, an illness or an abnormal test result, whether or not a treatment caused it. Whether it did is judged separately.

1
Mild.
2
Moderate.
3
Severe.
4
Life-threatening.
5
Death due to the event.

“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.

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.

Karnofsky performance status (KPS)

A 0–100 scale of how well someone can carry out everyday activities. 100 is no complaints and no signs of illness; 70 is able to look after yourself but not to work or keep up normal activity; 50 is needing considerable help and frequent medical care.

Studies often ask for 60 or 70 and above. Your doctor gives the score.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 1
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
20 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Radiation treatment

    Radiation: Low dose radiation therapy

Interventions

  • RadiationLow dose radiation therapy

    0.5 Gy per treatment x 6 treatments, given 2-3 treatments per week over 2-3 weeks (Can be given concurrently with IO)

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Radiation therapy

    To assess the safety and feasibility of administering Low dose radiation therapy (LDRT) in patients with immunotherapy-induced arthritis. Number of patients that experience at least one treatment related Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) grade 4 or 5 side effect.

    Time frame: 3 months post enrollment.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Effectiveness of Radiation in treating immunotherapy-induced arthritis.

    To assess pain relief in patients using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) v5 pain assessment. Grade 1 represents mild pain or mild pain with inflammation, erythema, or joint swelling. Grade 2 represents moderate pain/moderate pain with signs of inflammation, erythema, or joint swelling, limiting instrumental activities of daily living (ADLs). Grade 3 represents severe pain/severe pain with signs of inflammation, erythema, or joint swelling, irreversible joint damage, limiting instrumental activities of daily living (ADLs).

    Time frame: 3 months post enrollment.

  2. To examine the use of steroids.

    Change in the daily use of rescue analgesics and need for steroids specifically for immunotherapy induced arthritic pain.

    Time frame: 3 months post enrollment.

  3. To examine the use of rescue analgesics.

    Change in the daily use of rescue analgesics and need for steroids specifically for immunotherapy induced arthritic pain.

    Time frame: 3 months post enrollment.

  4. Effectiveness of Radiation in treating immunotherapy-induced arthritis.

    To assess pain relief in patients using the Visual Analogue Pain Scale (VAPS) score. The scale is bordered by "no pain" (score of 0) and "worst imaginable pain" (score of 10)

    Time frame: 3 months post enrollment.

  5. Effectiveness of Radiation in treating immunotherapy-induced arthritis.

    To assess pain relief in patients using the Von Pannewitz Score (VPS). The responses are rated as follows: stable (no improvement), slightly improved, markedly improved, and painless.

    Time frame: 3 months post enrollment.

07

Study locations

1 site
08

Timeline

Tracking 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

Start is estimated for Aug 2026; primary completion for Sep 2028, 24 months later.

Of 14 phase 1 interventional studies under Arthritis, half reached primary completion within 11 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 4 and three quarters within 23. This study's planned 24 months is above that.

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

Registered
Mar 2, 2026
First posted
Mar 17, 2026
StartEst.
Aug 26, 2026
Primary completionEst.
Sep 17, 2028
CompletionEst.
Sep 17, 2028
Last update
Mar 23, 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.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 23, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07478679
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Mar 17, 2026
Start date
Aug 26, 2026 (estimated)
Primary completion
Sep 17, 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Sep 17, 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Mar 23, 2026

Study contacts

Clinical Trials Intake
Contact
cancerclinicaltrials@bsd.uchicago.edu
855-702-8222
Pankti Reid
principal investigator · University of Chicago

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Mar 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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