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Outpatient Platelet Transfusions in Myelodysplastic Syndromes and Leukemia: The OPTIMAL Pilot

NCT01615146 · Status: TERMINATED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 9

Last updated 2015-09-02

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

As a result of the underlying disease or its therapy, it is common for patients with blood cancers to have low platelet counts. While platelet transfusions may be beneficial in preventing or treating bleeding symptoms, in circumstances where the risk of bleeding is low they may be unnecessary or even harmful. As a blood product, transfusion of platelets may be associated with infectious or allergic complications, and frequent hospital visits for transfusion may adversely affect quality of life. Additionally, the potentially overuse of platelet products places a burden on health care resources.

The benefit of the current practice of prophylactic platelet transfusions to prevent hemorrhage is unknown. The randomized data that exists is more than 25 years old and not informative given methodological limitations and the changing standards of supportive care. An alternative, therapeutic, strategy involves only administering platelets to control active bleeding.

The standard of practice in inpatients receiving high dose chemotherapy (either for acute leukemia or as part of stem cell transplantation) is prophylactic platelet transfusions. In outpatients not receiving high dose chemotherapy, the risk of bleeding is significantly lower. No randomized trials have examined the optimal platelet transfusion strategy in outpatients with blood cancers undergoing supportive or palliative therapy. Thus the potential benefit of prophylactic transfusions in the outpatient setting is unknown.

The investigators propose to perform a pilot randomized controlled trial to determine if a larger trial is possible. The ultimate goal is to determine if a strategy of therapeutic platelet transfusions is safe and effective in outpatients with blood cancers and low platelet counts.

Conditions

Interventions

OTHER

Platelet Transfusion

Patients allocated to the therapeutic platelet transfusion group will not receive routine prophylactic platelet transfusions. Platelet transfusions will be given to treat documented clinically relevant bleeding defined as WHO bleeding of grade 2 or greater. Patients may be transfused at the discretion of the treating physician. The indication for all platelet transfusions will be recorded by asking the ordering physician. Patients allocated to the prophylactic platelet transfusions will receive a platelet transfusion when the measured platelet count is \< 10 x 109/L. Patients may receive additional platelet transfusions at the discretion of the treating physician. The indication for all platelet transfusions will be recorded.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Canadian Blood Services

    collaborator OTHER

  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

    collaborator OTHER_GOV

  • Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Alan Tinmouth, MD, MSc · Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2012-06-30
Primary Completion
2015-06-30
Completion
2015-06-30

Countries

  • Canada

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01615146 on ClinicalTrials.gov