New Interest Spurs Progress in Treatment of Systemic Sclerosis

Internal Medicine News Digital Network—April 25, 2012

Management of systemic sclerosis is likely to improve as soon as an ongoing convergence of mechanistic insights, improved understanding of clinical trial design, and interest by industry results in new treatments, according to Dr. Robert F. Spiera.

Of particular note are recent trials, with both positive and negative results, of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and autologous stem cell transplantation, he said at a rheumatology meeting sponsored by New York University.

Even while awaiting a big breakthrough in treatment, "we can now do a lot for our patients with scleroderma," said Dr. Spiera, director of the Scleroderma and Vasculitis Center at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

Therapy for systemic sclerosis (SSc) falls into two categories: treatment of organ-specific complications and disease modification. Major advances have been made in treating organ-specific complications affecting the gastrointestinal system, kidneys, heart and lungs, and musculoskeletal organs, according to Dr. Spiera.

While there are no proven disease-modifying therapies as yet, the search for such therapies in scleroderma has intensified. Immunosuppressive therapy is one approach, and limited success has been achieved with cyclophosphamide.

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Another avenue of active research is the search for antifibrotic therapy. The TKI imatinib is one agent undergoing active scrutiny. According to Dr. Spiera, there are good preclinical data available for imatinib.

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"I think we are going to see more about [TKIs] for systemic sclerosis," said Dr. Spiera. He noted that clinical trials were underway for other TKIs, such as dasatinib and nilotinib.

While Dr. Spiera called for more randomized controlled trials, he also highlighted some of the challenges faced by those conducting clinical trials in scleroderma. These include the difficulty of recruiting patients with such an uncommon disease, the variety in disease phenotypes, the variable natural history, uncertainty as to what are the most relevant and valid outcome measures, and the ethical ramifications of randomizing patients to placebo.

This article originally appeared on InternalMedicineNews.com.