Thinking about taking part in research?
There are lots of research studies going on at any one time. These involve many of the different liver diseases. In each newsletter, we will be highlighting a few of the studies that people can currently take part in. Many of these are run out of Newcastle but people can often take part if they are looked after in a different hospital so please ask your doctor or get in contact about them.
The Obeticholic acid for the Amelioration of Cognitive Symptoms (OACS) trials are looking at whether Obeticholic acid (OCA) is helpful in managing the cognitive symptoms (brain fog) that patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) sometimes face. This medication is licensed on the NHS but currently we can only use it for people who have raised liver blood tests despite being on ursodeoxyholic acid (UDCA) or in people who can't take UDCA. People with a new or longstanding diagnosis of PBC can take part. It is a 'placebo-controlled' trial. This means that 50% of people get obeticholic acid and 50% get a 'dummy' drug. Neither the patient or the doctor knows which medication you are getting. The trial lasts 6 months. Patients who are on brates are not able to take part.
The key contacts for this study are:
Geraldine Carroll (geraldine.carroll@nhs.net) and Jess Dyson (jessica.dyson1@nhs.net)
The PROMISE trial is a PROspective double-blind placebo-controlled multicentre trial of faecal MIcrobiota tranSplantation to improve outcomEs in patients with cirrhosis. We know that in people with cirrhosis, there are increased numbers of 'bad' bowel bacteria which can be harmful to health. It could be benecial to replace these 'bad' bacteria with 'good' gut bacteria donated from a healthy person by performing a type of bowel bacteria transplant, known as faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). The PROMISE trial will evaluate whether treating patients with FMT capsules (made containing dried stool from a health donor) will reduce the likelihood of them getting an infection by measuring the time it takes to develop an infection resulting in hospital admission. This will be compared to a 'dummy' capsule that contains no FMT (placebo).
It is a multicentre UK trial, including patients from the Freeman Hospital. Patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) cirrhosis, previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, will be selected at random to have FMT treatment or placebo and both the study team and the patients will not know which treatment they are taking. The patients will need to take 5 capsules every 3-months. Patients will continue treatment for a total of 21-months or until they develop their rst infection leading to hospital admission and will be followed-up for a maximum of 2-years.