Efficacy of 4 Years of Octreotide Long-Acting Release Therapy in Patients With Severe Polycystic Liver Disease

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Octreotide, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To observe the effect on total liver volume (TLV) on and off therapy in selected symptomatic patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) or autosomal dominant polycystic liver disease (PLD) who received octreotide long-acting release (OctLAR) for up to 4 years.

Who Took Part

The study group was 42 participants.

PubMed tags the participants as both men and women.

Participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging at baseline, years 1 and 2, reenrollment, and study completion.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and open-label study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Octreotide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Octreotide, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

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.

Primary end point: change in TLV; secondary end points: changes in total kidney volume, glomerular filtration rate, quality of life (QoL), safety, vital signs, and laboratory parameters.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal, Cysts, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Liver Diseases, Octreotide, Organ Size and Polycystic Kidney, Autosomal Dominant.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and open-label study of Octreotide in 42 participants.

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2015 (Mayo Clinic proceedings), a journal based in England.

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