COVID-19 Clinical Trials: Ohio State University Using Low-Dose Radiation To Treat ARDS In COVID-19 Patients In Two Separate Trials
Source: COVID-19 Clinical Trials Jun 18, 2020 4 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 5 hours, 12 minutes ago
COVID-19 Clinical Trials: Past studies have shown that low-dose, whole lung radiation in the form of X-rays can effectively treat severe pneumonia, with minimal side effects.
Now, two clinical trials by Ohio State University are applying a modern version of this concept to test patients who have acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) as a result of COVID-19 infection.
In each of these trials, patients will undergo a single treatment of whole lung radiation to target and reduce pulmonary inflammation associated with COVID-19 infection in two separate phase II clinical trials.
The research trials are led by Dr Arnab Chakravarti, MD, chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at The Ohio State University and member of the Translational Therapeutics Program at Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center—Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.
It has been observed that some patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia will experience worsening disease that can become very serious, requiring the use of a ventilator. This is caused by inflammation in the lungs from the virus caused by over-reaction of the immune system.
In these clinical trials, researchers will give a form of radiation therapy that uses high-energy X-ray beams to target the lungs and reduce inflammation caused by the COVID-19 virus. Usually, it is given at considerably higher doses to treat cancers.
Dr Chakravarti told Thailand Medical News, "We believe adding a single treatment of low-dose X-rays to the lungs might reduce the amount of inflammation in the lungs from a COVID-19 infection, which could help a patient to breathe without use of a ventilator."
‘PREVENT’ is the first trial and will be a national trial for COVID-19+ pneumonic patients who do not yet require mechanical breathing intervention (ventilator) but are experiencing severe respiratory distress.
Dr Chakravarti serves as the national principal investigator of this study, which will involve up to 20 additional hospitals across the United States.
The second trial, VENTED, is for patients who are critically ill and on a ventilator. This study is also led by Dr Chakravarti and will be conducted exclusively at Ohio State. Treatments will be administered in a COVID-19-only containment area and with a single machine not used for standard oncology care.
Dr Chakravarti notes that decades of science have shown that low-dose radiation can elicit an anti-inflammatory immune response from the immune system.
Dr Chakravarti added, "There is a substantial overlap between proinflammatory cellular reactions that occur in COVID-19 patients and those suppressed by low-dose radiation. Hitting that infection with low-dose radiation could be an effective anti-inflammatory therapy to reduce inflammation and improve respiratory challenges associated with COVID-19 pneumonia, providing patients with critical symptom relief and giving them a better opportunity to recover from these sometimes life-threatening infections,"
COVID-19 patients will be monitored before and after treatment to better understand the molecula
r biology behind disease treatment and response.
The researchers will use results from this study to determine if there is sufficient evidence of clinical benefit to warrant a substantial phase II randomized clinical trial.
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