View clinical trials related to Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis.
Filter by:The goals of the proposed work are two fold: Firstly, to see if the antibiotic vancomycin may be used for the early treatment of Biliary Atresia (BA) and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC). The investigators hope to learn what effect Vancomycin has on the bacteria that are present in stool, body fluid or intestinal tissue on someone who has BA and PSC and if so by what mechanism. Secondly, the investigators hope to learn to characterize human intestinal microbial communities (microbiome: the collection or collectivity of microorganisms) using molecular methods, examine the mechanisms of interaction between host and microbiome using genomic approaches, and determine how the microbiome both preserves local health and promotes pathology. The investigators will focus on primary sclerosing cholangitis, biliary atresia, as well as states of health. The composition of the associated microbiome will be assessed based on ribosomal DNA and RNA sequences, and attention will be given to richness (diversity), evenness (relative abundance), and variation with respect to time, person, and anatomic niche. Host response at the adjacent mucosal surface will be assessed based on genome-wide gene expression patterns.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether fenofibrate is safe and effective in the treatment primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).
Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), although uncommon, is a devastating and insidiously progressive liver disease, resulting from advancing inflammation, fibrosis and obliteration of the bile ducts in the liver, leading to cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease. Although prognosis in children may be somewhat better than that of adults, approximately one third of pediatric patients require transplantation by adulthood. Other than transplantation, there is to date no therapy conclusively proven to improve the long-term outcome. Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) improves biochemical markers of liver disease, although in high doses does not clearly improve the long-term outcome in adults, and in a recent study may have actually worsened outcome. Childhood PSC is different from that of adult PSC in many ways, and children may derive more short-term, as well as long-term, benefit than adults. This unique multicenter study will carefully monitor the effects of withdrawal and restarting UDCA on liver injury and inflammation in children with PSC. The preliminary data will help in the design of a more definitive larger study to determine if UDCA has a beneficial role in the treatment of PSC in children. Funding Source - FDA OOPD
The purpose of this study is to determine whether Vancomycin or Metronidazole is safe and beneficial in the treatment of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis.
Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic inflammatory condition of the bile ducts of unknown etiology. It is characterized by diffuse inflammation and stricturing of the entire biliary tree, eventually resulting in cirrhosis of the liver. Patients with PSC are at increased risk for the development of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a cancer arising from bile duct epithelium. This risk is estimated to be approximately 1 to 1.5% per year. It is postulated that chronic inflammatory changes in the biliary epithelium promote CCA formation. The prognosis of CCA is fatal. The only potentially curative therapy is surgical; however, only a minority of patients qualify for surgical treatment. Several studies have demonstrated overexpression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in CCA cells. EGFR is a type 1 tyrosine kinase promoting cell proliferation, migration and altered cell adhesion - typical characteristics of malignant neoplasias. In CCA cells, EGFR-activation is sustained resulting in cancer progression. In human CCA samples, EGFR-expression correlates with higher histologic grade, poor prognosis, and risk of recurrence. The EGFR gene is located on the short arm of chromosome 7 (7p12). Chromosomal abnormalities of the bile duct epithelium, particularly trisomy 7 (i.e. three copies of chromosome 7) can be detected in biliary epithelial samples obtained by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in PSC patients. The finding of cells with trisomy 7 has preceded the development of aneuploidy and multiple chromosomal abnormalities in a number of patients, the latter chromosomal abnormalities are characteristic of CCA. Trisomy 7 amplifies the gene for EGFR thereby presumably promoting overexpression of this growth factor receptor. In a cohort of patients with Trisomy 7 and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis patients followed for 1 year, the rate of development of Cholangiocarcinoma was 35% (n=37, Dr. Gores, unpublished observation). Patients without cytologic abnormalities were at minimal risk for the development of CCA. Erlotinib (Tarceva) is a human EGFR type 1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Tarceva received FDA approval as single agent treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. In a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trial of 731 patients, receiving 150 mg of Tarceva or placebo once daily, median survival was prolonged to 6.7 months from 4.7 months (p<0.001). Analysis of epidermal growth factor receptor expression (45% of total study patients) demonstrated greater survival benefit in EGFR positive patients. Tarceva in combination with Gemcitabine is also FDA approved as first line therapy in patients with locally advanced, unresectable or metastatic pancreatic cancer. Our central hypothesis is that patients with trisomy 7 will have carcinogenic changes including EGFR overexpression. EGFR blockade will inhibit a growth/survival advantage for these premalignant clones eliminating them from the biliary epithelium. As an initial step towards testing this hypothesis, the tolerability of Tarceva in this patient population needs to be established. This study will assist in determining the safety and tolerability of Tarceva in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis. This study will be followed by a Phase 2 randomized controlled trial of Tarceva in patients with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis with Trisomy 7.
The purpose of this study is to determine the safety and benefit of Thalidomide with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). This is a six month study.
Patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) are affected by an inflammatory condition of the bile ducts. Unfortunately, patients with PSC have a 10 to 15 percent lifetime risk of developing gallbladder and bile duct cancers. Gallbladder and bile duct cancers have a five-year survival of only 5 to 10 percent. Surgery to provide a cure must remove all cancer confined to one area. In order to increase survival rates there is a need to identify cancer and pre-cancer early. This has been difficult to do. Patients who have lab tests, positive imaging tests or obstructions will usually have a test called ERCP (Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatogram) to take biopsies and enlarge bile ducts or opening bile ducts with stents. Patients usually have cells in the bile ducts removed and analyzed, but there are not studies to show how sensitive this may be to determine if the cells are cancer or pre-cancerous. A new scope with a system using light filters called Narrow Band Imaging (NBI) may help detect cancer and pre-cancer more often and at an earlier stage.
The purpose of the study is to see how safe and effective minocycline is in the treatment of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC).
The reason for this study is to see if a new radiologic technique called computerized tomographic cholangiography (CT cholangiography) could be helpful to demonstrate the bile ducts features and measure the amount of space of bile duct canals that should be filled with bile fluid. It may be useful to find out how well these findings correlate with the previously known clinical predictors in term of the clinical outcomes that will happen in the future for patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).
Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic disorder of the liver causing jaundice and liver damage. When Cystic Fibrosis affects the liver, the damaged liver looks like the liver in PSC. This study is designed to answer the question whether isolated PSC may be a form of CF only in the liver