Interferon-2B Treatment in Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia

 

Cure HHT is pleased to announce that Karen Swanson, DO from the Mayo Clinic Rochester has been awarded a $50,000 grant for her research entitled “Interferon-2B Treatment in Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia”.

 

Dr. Swanson’s Cure HHT seed grant has been leveraged to $1.0MM through FDA Orphan Drug

 

Proposed Research Study

Dr. Swanson’s research is directed towards determining whether interferon may provide a safe and effective treatment for HHT. A certain type of interferon has already been shown to have anti-angiogenic properties and is currently used in the treatment of infantile hemangiomas and liver hemangiomas. Both of these are diseases of abnormal blood vessel formation similar to the telangiectases and AVMs that occur in HHT.

Aim 1 – Determine if IFNa2b is safe in HHT

Aim 2 – Determine treatment effects of IFNa2b and its effects on quality of life for HHT patients

 

Research Study Update

“We were successful in achieving $1.0MM in funding from the FDA to complete this trial.  This would not have been possible without the Cure HHT seed grant,” stated Dr. Swanson. 

The Cure HHT seed grant allowed Dr. Swanson to set up the clinical trial, develop case report forms, and apply for extramural funding.  The clinical trial began enrolling patients in January of 2007.  Dr. Swanson enrolled 10 of 60 patients in the protocol – 5 are in Group 1; 3 are in Group 2; and 2 are in Group 3. Ultimately, Schering-Plough discontinued supplying study drug, therefore, patient recruitment was terminated.