A phase III trial showed that a 6-month tuberculosis treatment regimen delivered similar results to the longer standard-of-care regimen in patients with pulmonary rifampicin-resistant disease.These results give clinicians another simple, all-oral, 6-month option for drug-resistant tuberculosis that can be used even in children and pregnant or breastfeeding women.The trial's results have already reshaped WHO recommendations.
A 6-month tuberculosis (TB) treatment regimen delivered similar results to the longer standard-of-care regimen in patients with pulmonary rifampicin-resistant TB, a phase III noninferiority trial showed.
Among 402 patients, 86.1% of those who received 6 months of bedaquiline (Sirturo), delamanid, linezolid, and levofloxacin or clofazimine or both had a successful outcome -- defined as cure or completion of treatment -- compared with 86.0% of those who received seven drugs for 9 months (P=0.001 for noninferiority), reported Francesca Conradie, MBBCh, of the Jose Pearson TB Hospital in Bethelsdorp, South Africa, and colleagues in the New England Journal of Medicine.
These results from the BEAT Tuberculosis trial give clinicians another simple, all-oral, 6-month option for drug-resistant TB that can be used even in children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, Conradie told MedPage Today.
