Thursday, March 22, 2012

Octreotide for IPF

Somatostatin receptor sst2A  is highly expressed in fibrotic lung tissue in IPF patients. Uptake of a somatostatin analogue octreotide is elevated in the lungs of IPF patients.

Octreotide has been widely used for the treatment of neuroendocrine tumours.

A team of French scientists initiated a study that evaluated the safety and efficacy of intramuscular long-actingoctreotide as a therapy for IPF.  This was an open-label, proof-of-concept, non-randomised, non-controlled, multicentre phase II study on 25 patients over 48 weeks performed in France between October 2006 and April 2008.

The study concluded that long-acting octreotide is well tolerated and provide a proof of concept that octreotide treatment slows down the progression of lung fibrosis. A larger placebo-controlled study is needed to confirm the efficacy.

Reference
Crestani B, et al. Octreotide treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a proof-of-concept study. Eur Respir J. 2012 Mar;39(3):772-5. PubMed PMID: 22379151.

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