Positioning Imatinib for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2024-07-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) is a rare condition in which a narrowing of blood
vessels carrying blood through the lungs puts an increased work load on the heart; it has to
work harder to pump blood through the lungs. While current treatments relieve some of the
symptoms, they do not stop or reverse the disease in the affected blood vessels. Imatinib is
a medicine licensed for some types of cancers. A published study has shown that imatinib can
have beneficial effects on blood flow through the lungs and exercise capacity in patients
with PAH, even when added to existing treatments. However, there have been concerns about its
safety and tolerability. Imatinib continues to be prescribed occasionally on compassionate
grounds, usually when other treatment options have been exhausted, and some patients feel
better on the drug. To improve the investigator's understanding, the investigators of this
study re-visits the use of Imatinib as a potential treatment for patients with PAH.
Phase:
Phase 2
Details
Lead Sponsor:
Imperial College London
Collaborators:
Medical Research Council National Institute for Health Research, United Kingdom University of Cambridge University of Sheffield