A randomized controlled 1-year study of daily deferiprone plus twice weekly desferrioxamine compared with daily deferiprone monotherapy in patients with thalassemia major

Aydinok, Yesim; Ulger, Zulal; Nart, Deniz; Terzi, Aysen; Cetiner, Nurten; Ellis, Gareth; Zimmermann, Arthur; Manz, Chantal (2007). A randomized controlled 1-year study of daily deferiprone plus twice weekly desferrioxamine compared with daily deferiprone monotherapy in patients with thalassemia major. Haematologica - the hematology journal, 92(12), pp. 1599-606. Pavia: Ferrata-Storti Foundation 10.3324/haematol.11414

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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this prospective, randomized, 1-year study was to compare the efficacy and safety of oral deferiprone (DFP) with those of combinations of parenteral desferrioxamine (DFO) with oral DFP. DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 24 patients with thalassemia major were randomized to receive one of the following two treatments; DFP given at a daily dose of 75 mg/kg in combination with DFO (40-50 mg/kg twice weekly) (n=12) or as single agent (n=12). In addition, 12 patients treated with 40-50 mg/kg DFO 5 days weekly were included as a reference group without randomization. Changes in liver iron concentration (LIC) and serum ferritin (SF) were assessed; total iron excretion (TIE), urinary iron excretion (UIE) and iron balance were calculated. Cardiac function and toxicity were also examined. DESIGN AND METHODS: SF and LIC were significantly reduced after 1 year of combination therapy (p=0.01 and 0.07, respectively). A decrease of LIC was observed in all but one patient (87.5%) following the combination therapy but in only 42% of patients treated with DFP monotherapy. In the DFO reference group, a statistically significant decrease in LIC (p=0.01) associated with a substantial decrease in SF (p=0.08) was observed after 1 year. The combination regimen resulted in greater TIE compared to DFP monotherapy (p=0.08) and was the regimen associated with the highest iron balance compared to DFP monotherapy (p=0.04) or standard DFO treatment (p=0.006). INTERPRETATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS: The addition of subcutaneous DFO twice weekly to oral DFP 75 mg/kg is a highly efficacious and safe chelation therapy providing superior chelation activity to that of DFP and likely has an efficacy profile comparable to that of standard DFO.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute of Pathology
UniBE Contributor:	Zimmermann, Arthur
ISSN:	0390-6078
ISBN:	18055982
Publisher:	Ferrata-Storti Foundation
Language:	English
Submitter:	Factscience Import
Date Deposited:	04 Oct 2013 14:54
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:16
Publisher DOI:	10.3324/haematol.11414
PubMed ID:	18055982
Web of Science ID:	000251312100004
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/22833 (FactScience: 37241)