Immune-Mediated Pathophysiology And Clinical Triage Program
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2028-07-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Many people develop joint pain, stiffness and swelling due to their cancer treatment that
targets the immune system. The severity of symptoms ranges from mild to debilitating and
sometimes requires delaying or stopping cancer treatment.
The usual plan is to discontinue cancer treatment and give relatively high doses of a
medication called prednisone (a steroid, which is an anti-inflammatory medication which may
suppress the immune system) with a gradual lowering of the dose over several weeks. While
this can be effective, prednisone can cause a number of side effects, and it is not known if
this is the best or safest treatment.
Hydroxychloroquine is a medication that is often used to treat inflammatory joint pain, such
as rheumatoid arthritis, has relatively few side effects when compared to prednisone, and may
be effective at treating this condition.
The purpose of this study is to find out whether it is better to receive hydroxychloroquine
and prednisone, or prednisone alone for joint pain. To do this, some participants will get
hydroxychloroquine and some will receive a placebo (a substance that looks like the study
drug but does not have any active or medicinal ingredients). A placebo is used to make the
results of the study more reliable.
This is a double-blinded study, which means that neither participants nor the study doctor or
study staff will know which group participants are allocated. After 12 weeks of study
treatment, the blind will be opened and participants will be informed which treatment was
given.