Rituximab for the Treatment of Fatigue in Primary Biliary Cirrhosis
The trial is now closed to recruitment and on behalf of Prof Jones and the team we would like to thank all participants who volunteered, the study is still on-going and updates will be reported via the UK-PBC website.
The trial: We are running a trial of a new treatment which we hope will improve fatigue in PBC and improve our understanding of why people with PBC get fatigue.
Funder: This project was awarded by the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme*, and is funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and managed by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) on behalf of the MRC-NIHR partnership.
Why: Fatigue is common in people with PBC and there is currently no licensed treatment to offer patients
What: The drug being investigated is called Rituximab and is a treatment used currently to treat many conditions including Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Rituximab has already been studied to a limited extent in PBC, showing some benefits in terms of liver disease severity but, importantly, also evidence to suggest that it reduces fatigue
Who: PBC patients with moderate – severe fatigue
Where:The trial is based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne so patients would need to be willing to travel
When: The trial is now open to recruitment
How: If you would like to find out more information then please contact one of the trial team on:
E: kathryn.houghton@ncl.ac.uk or Laura.Jopson@newcastle.ac.uk T: 0191 2820070
*The EME Programme is funded by the MRC and NIHR, with contributions from the CSO in Scotland and NISCHR in Wales and the HSC R&D Division, Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland. It is managed by the NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC) based at the University of Southampton.
