Abstract

Purpose: Telotristat ethyl, an oral tryptophan hydroxylase inhibitor, is intended to treat carcinoid syndrome by reducing serotonin production. Telotristat ethyl was evaluated in TELESTAR, a Phase III study for patients who had carcinoid syndrome with at least 4 bowel movements (BMs) per day and who were receiving somatostatin analogue therapy. This interview substudy was conducted to provide insight into the patient experience in TELESTAR and to help understand whether reductions in BM frequency (the primary end point) and other symptoms were clinically meaningful.

Methods: Participating sites were asked to invite (before randomization) all eligible patients to telephone interviews scheduled at the end of the double-blind treatment period. Patients and interviewers were blinded to treatment.

Findings: All 35 interviewed participants reported diarrhea and/or excessive BMs at baseline. Patients reported that these symptoms negatively affected emotional, social, physical, and occupational well-being. Prespecified criteria for treatment response (achieving ≥ 30% reduction in BM frequency for at least 50% of the days) were met by 8 of 26 patients taking telotristat ethyl and 1 of 9 patients taking placebo. All 8 patients taking telotristat ethyl described clinically meaningful reductions in BM frequency and were very satisfied with the ability of the study drug to control their carcinoid syndrome symptoms. Overall, reports of being very satisfied were observed in 12 patients taking telotristat ethyl and 0 taking placebo.

Implications: Patient interviews revealed that TELESTAR patients, at baseline, were significantly affected by their high BM frequency. Patient reports of their clinical trial experience supported the significance of the primary end point and clinical responder analysis in TELESTAR, helping identify and understand clinically meaningful change produced by telotristat ethyl.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2017

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Clinical Therapeutics, v. 39, no. 11, p. 2158-2168.

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinthera.2017.09.013

Funding Information

L. Anthony has received grants from Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc. D. Hörsch has received grants from Ipsen and compensation from Ipsen and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc. D.C. Metz has received grant funding from Ipsen, Advanced Accelerator Applications,and Wren Laboratories and consulting fees from Novartis. N. Pavlakis has received compensation from Novartis and Ipsen. M. Pavel has received consulting fees from Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc, Novartis, and Ipsen. K. Öberg has been received honoraria and speakers’ bureau fees from Novartis and Ipsen.

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