High-dose intramuscular octreotide in patients with acromegaly inadequately controlled on conventional somatostatin analogue therapy: a randomised controlled trial

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Octreotide and Somatostatin.

Who Took Part

The study group was 23 patients.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

A 24-week prospective, multicentre, randomised, open-label trial conducted from 12 December 2005 to 23 October 2007 in patients with persistently uncontrolled acromegaly despite > or =6 month conventional SSA therapy.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, open-label and multicenter study.

Because people in this Octreotide study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Everyone knew when Octreotide was being given (open label), which is simpler to run but leaves more room for expectations to affect what is reported.

Running at several centres spread the Octreotide study over different clinics and patient groups.

Secondary end points included IGF1 normalisation and tumour shrinkage rates, and safety/tolerability evaluations.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Acromegaly, Human Growth Hormone, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Octreotide and Somatostatin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, open-label and multicenter study of Octreotide and Somatostatin in 23 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 8 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2009 (European journal of endocrinology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Octreotide compound page and the Somatostatin compound page, all human trials.