Update on Doxycycline in LAM Trial

Dr. Anu Krishnan, Dr.Deborah Yates

Dept of Thoracic Medicine

St.Vincents Hospital, Sydney

We have started enrolling patients for the Doxycycline in LAM trial at St.Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney and are pleased to report that eight of our patients have already started on the first treatment phase (with either doxycycline or placebo).

Patients with LAM are invited to take part in the trial which is based at St.Vincents Hospital, Sydney. This will involve an initial screening visit which is like a regular clinic visit at which we will discuss the trial and obtain consent. There will be some additional baseline tests including blood and urine tests, lung function tests, CT scans of the chest, a few non-invasive breath tests (exhaled breath condensate and exhaled nitric oxide) and a six minute walk test.

After a four week wash out period, we would randomly allocate you to one of the treatment arms of the study, which means you would either be on doxycycline for six months or placebo (which is an inactive tablet). Neither the doctor nor the patient would know which tablet the patient is on until the study has finished. This means the effect of the doxycycline can be objectively compared with no treatment, for each patient. If you agree to the study, you would be treated with a tablet (either doxycycline or placebo) for 6 consecutive months, followed by the alternative tablet. There would be a 4 week gap between treatments during which time you would be on no study medication, to ensure the previous tablet is fully out of your body.

We will then review you at St.Vincents at three monthly intervals for the duration of the study. All the tests mentioned earlier will be repeated at each of these visits. In between these visits, you are encouraged to call us should you have any medical problems we will arrange to see you or for you to be seen by your local doctor if more convenient.

We encourage you to contact us and consider participating in this trial which we hope will contribute to a better understanding of LAM and may be useful in selection of future treatment.

If you have any questions about this trial, please contact me or Dr Deborah Yates through St.Vincent’s Hospital switchboard or email:

Dr. Anu Krishnan (02) 83821111 (switchboard)

Clinical Research Fellow akrishnan@stvincents.com.au This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Thoracic Medicine

St.Vincents Hospital, Sydney