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Nicholls K, Denaro C, Tchan M, Ellaway C, Bratkovic D, Campbell S, Fookes M, Thomas M. Fabry-specific treatment in Australia: time to align eligibility criteria with international best practices. Intern Med J 2024; 54:882-890. [PMID: 38212950 DOI: 10.1111/imj.16327] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Disease-specific therapy aims to improve symptoms, stabilise current disease and delay progression in patients with Fabry disease. In Australia, treatment access is subject to eligibility criteria initially established in 2004. Patients and their clinicians question why these criteria have remained unchanged despite significant progress in disease understanding. AIMS Appraise the clinical quality of the Australian treatment access criteria. METHODS The Fabry Australia Medical Advisory Committee (N = 6) used the Appraisal of Guidelines for REsearch and Evaluation Global Rating Scale (AGREE II GRS) to assess the clinical quality of the current treatment eligibility criteria. They reviewed the literature, developed 17 clinical statements to help guide reforms of the eligibility criteria and achieved consensus (achievement of ≥75% agreement in the range 5-7 on a 7-point Likert scale) through anonymous voting. The findings were applied to develop proposals for revised classification and treatment initiation criteria. RESULTS The current treatment eligibility criteria underperformed on the AGREE II GRS. They are pragmatic but out-of-step with contemporary data. Consensus was achieved on all 17 proposed clinical statements. There was strong agreement to differentiate classical male Fabry patients to facilitate timelier access to Fabry-specific treatment. There was also agreement on the value of adopting relevant organ involvement criteria in classical female patients and patients with non-classical disease. CONCLUSIONS Australian access criteria are misaligned with current clinical evidence. The clinical statements and proposed classification and initiation criteria should prompt discussions to support more equitable access to treatment and better align Australian practice with contemporary evidence and international guidelines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathleen Nicholls
- Department of Nephrology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Charles Denaro
- Department of Internal Medicine and Aged Care, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Academy of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Michel Tchan
- Department of Genetic Medicine, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Carolyn Ellaway
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Genetic Metabolic Disorders Service, Sydney Children's Hospital Network, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Drago Bratkovic
- Department of Internal Medicine and Aged Care, Women's and Children's Hospital, North Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | | | - Megan Fookes
- Fabry Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Mark Thomas
- Department of Nephrology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
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Pieroni M, Namdar M, Olivotto I, Desnick RJ. Anderson-Fabry disease management: role of the cardiologist. Eur Heart J 2024; 45:1395-1409. [PMID: 38486361 DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2023] [Revised: 02/04/2024] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 04/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Anderson-Fabry disease (AFD) is a lysosomal storage disorder characterized by glycolipid accumulation in cardiac cells, associated with a peculiar form of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Up to 1% of patients with a diagnosis of HCM indeed have AFD. With the availability of targeted therapies for sarcomeric HCM and its genocopies, a timely differential diagnosis is essential. Specifically, the therapeutic landscape for AFD is rapidly evolving and offers increasingly effective, disease-modifying treatment options. However, diagnosing AFD may be difficult, particularly in the non-classic phenotype with prominent or isolated cardiac involvement and no systemic red flags. For many AFD patients, the clinical journey from initial clinical manifestations to diagnosis and appropriate treatment remains challenging, due to late recognition or utter neglect. Consequently, late initiation of treatment results in an exacerbation of cardiac involvement, representing the main cause of morbidity and mortality, irrespective of gender. Optimal management of AFD patients requires a dedicated multidisciplinary team, in which the cardiologist plays a decisive role, ranging from the differential diagnosis to the prevention of complications and the evaluation of timing for disease-specific therapies. The present review aims to redefine the role of cardiologists across the main decision nodes in contemporary AFD clinical care and drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maurizio Pieroni
- Cardiovascular Department, San Donato Hospital, Via Pietro Nenni 22, 52100 Arezzo, Italy
| | - Mehdi Namdar
- Cardiology Division, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Iacopo Olivotto
- Cardiomyopathy Unit, Careggi Hospital and Meyer Children's Hospital IRCCS, Florence, Italy
- Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - Robert J Desnick
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
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Yee KS, Lewis S, Evans E, Romano C, Alexanderian D. Caregiver experiences and observations of intrathecal idursulfase-IT treatment in a phase 2/3 trial in pediatric patients with neuronopathic mucopolysaccharidosis II. Orphanet J Rare Dis 2024; 19:110. [PMID: 38462612 PMCID: PMC10926613 DOI: 10.1186/s13023-024-03034-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2023] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 03/12/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Approximately two-thirds of patients with mucopolysaccharidosis II (MPS II) have a severe, neuronopathic phenotype, characterized by somatic, cognitive, and behavioral issues. Current standard of care for the treatment of MPS II is enzyme replacement therapy with intravenous recombinant human iduronate-2-sulfatase (idursulfase). To target cognitive manifestations of MPS II, idursulfase has been formulated for intrathecal administration into the cerebrospinal fluid (idursulfase-IT). In accordance with recommendations for patient-focused drug development, semi-structured interviews were conducted to assess caregiver experiences and observations in a 52-week phase 2/3 trial of idursulfase-IT, in addition to intravenous idursulfase in pediatric patients with neuronopathic MPS II, or a substudy which enrolled patients younger than 3 years old, all of whom received idursulfase-IT. RESULTS Overall, 46 caregivers providing care for 50 children (mean [range] age 7.9 [3-17] years at interview) took part in a single 60-min exit interview; six of these children had participated in the substudy. Qualitative and quantitative data were obtained demonstrating the burden of MPS II experienced by caregivers and their families. Following participation in the trials, 39 (78%) of the children were reported by their caregivers to have experienced improvements in the symptoms and impact of disease. Of those with improvements, 37 (95%) experienced cognitive improvements and 26 (67%) experienced emotional/behavioral improvements. Overall, 43 children (86%) were rated by caregivers as having moderate or severe symptoms before the trials; after the trials, 28 children (56%) were considered to have mild or no symptoms. For the six children who participated in the substudy, these proportions were 83% and 100%, respectively. Caregivers' qualitative descriptions of trial experiences suggested improvements in children's verbal and non-verbal functioning and spatial and motor skills, as well as a positive impact on family life. CONCLUSIONS This study revealed caregiver-reported improvements in children's MPS II symptoms and the impact of the disease on patients and their families. There was a trend for cognitive improvement and a reduction in severity of MPS II symptoms. After many years of extensive review and regulatory discussions of idursulfase-IT, the clinical trial data were found to be insufficient to meet the evidentiary standard to support regulatory filings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karen S Yee
- Takeda Development Center Americas, Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Sandy Lewis
- RTI Health Solutions, Research Triangle Park, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Emily Evans
- RTI Health Solutions, Research Triangle Park, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Carla Romano
- RTI Health Solutions, Research Triangle Park, Raleigh, NC, USA
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Liévin V, Hansen JM, Lund A, Elstein D, Matthiesen ME, Elomaa K, Zarakowska K, Himmelhan I, Botha J, Borgeskov H, Winther O. FindZebra online search delving into rare disease case reports using natural language processing. PLOS DIGITAL HEALTH 2023; 2:e0000269. [PMID: 37384616 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2022] [Accepted: 05/03/2023] [Indexed: 07/01/2023]
Abstract
Early diagnosis is crucial for well-being and life quality of the rare disease patient. Access to the most complete knowledge about diseases through intelligent user interfaces can play an important role in supporting the physician reaching the correct diagnosis. Case reports may offer information about heterogeneous phenotypes which often further complicate rare disease diagnosis. The rare disease search engine FindZebra.com is extended to also access case report abstracts extracted from PubMed for several diseases. A search index for each disease is built in Apache Solr adding age, sex and clinical features extracted using text segmentation to enhance the specificity of search. Clinical experts performed retrospective validation of the search engine, utilising real-world Outcomes Survey data on Gaucher and Fabry patients. Medical experts evaluated the search results as being clinically relevant for the Fabry patients and less clinically relevant for the Gaucher patients. The shortcomings for Gaucher patients mainly reflect a mismatch between the current understanding and treatment of the disease and how it is reported in PubMed, notably in the older case reports. In response to this observation, a filter for the publication date was added in the final version of the tool available from deep.findzebra.com/<disease> with <disease> = gaucher, fabry, hae (Hereditary angioedema).
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentin Liévin
- DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
- FindZebra, Denmark
| | | | - Allan Lund
- Centre Inherited Metabolic Diseases, Department of Clinical Genetics and Paediatrics, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
| | | | | | | | - Kaja Zarakowska
- Takeda Pharmaceuticals International AG, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Iris Himmelhan
- Takeda Pharmaceuticals International AG, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Jaco Botha
- Takeda Pharmaceuticals International AG, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Hanne Borgeskov
- Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
| | - Ole Winther
- DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
- FindZebra, Denmark
- Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N, Denmark
- Genomic Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
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Tsurumi M, Ozaki A, Eto Y. A survey on the patient journey in Fabry disease in Japan. Mol Genet Metab Rep 2022; 33:100909. [PMID: 36035889 PMCID: PMC9411675 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymgmr.2022.100909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2022] [Revised: 07/28/2022] [Accepted: 07/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Fabry disease (FD) is a rare X-linked lysosomal storage disease caused by a deficiency in α-galactosidase that is frequently diagnosed late after disease onset. While previous studies have focused on the multisystem manifestations that can lead to delayed or incorrect diagnosis and management, none have investigated the entire patient journey, and few have examined the patient's disease experience. Objective To investigate the path to diagnosis from disease onset, and the impact of the disease on daily life, among individuals with FD in Japan. Methods A nationwide survey of patients with FD receiving enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) was conducted between March 27 and June 11, 2018. Participants were recruited via patient support groups or physicians. Respondents completed a questionnaire eliciting information on sociodemographic status, self-perceived health status, initial and current clinical manifestations, the process of diagnosis, and impact on their life. Responses were analyzed descriptively. Results Data from 40 respondents were analyzed (17 males and 23 females; 77.5% aged ≥30 years). Mean ERT duration was 7.7 years. Mean time from disease onset to diagnosis was 18.7 years (16.7 years [males] vs 20.3 years [females]). The final diagnosis was made most commonly by pediatricians (38%). Forty percent of respondents felt relieved and 30% felt anxious when diagnosed, and when initiating ERT, 48% felt more positive about their daily life. Nevertheless, 85% reported that treatment affected their lives/work, and most (73%) experienced difficulties in their relationships with others. Conclusion Efforts are needed to achieve early diagnosis of patients with FD in Japan, to improve clinician awareness, and improve the psychosocial issues associated with FD. Fabry disease (FD) is a rare but commonly missed genetic disease. Efforts are needed to achieve early diagnosis of patients with FD in Japan. Patients with FD experience psychosocial issues and require increased support. Patients with FD need improved understanding about FD from the people around them.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mina Tsurumi
- Rare Disease Medical, Specialty Care, Sanofi K.K., Tokyo, Japan
- Corresponding author.
| | - Asuka Ozaki
- Rare Disease Medical, Specialty Care, Sanofi K.K., Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yoshikatsu Eto
- Advanced Clinical Research Centre, Institute of Neurological Disorders, Kawasaki, Japan
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Abstract
Alemtuzumab (Lemtrada®) is an anti-CD52 monoclonal antibody approved in the EU for the treatment of highly active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). In phase 3 trials in patients with active RRMS, intravenous alemtuzumab was more effective than subcutaneous interferon β-1a in terms of decreasing relapse rates (in treatment-naïve or -experienced patients) and disability progression (treatment-experienced patients). Treatment benefits were maintained over up to 9 years of follow-up, with ≈ 50% of patients not requiring retreatment. The efficacy of alemtuzumab in patients with highly active disease was generally similar to that in the overall population. Alemtuzumab has an acceptable tolerability profile, with infusion-associated reactions, infections and autoimmunity being the main safety and tolerability issues. Current evidence indicates that alemtuzumab is an effective treatment option for adults with highly active RRMS, with an acceptable safety and tolerability profile and convenient treatment regimen.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yahiya Y Syed
- Springer Nature, Mairangi Bay, Private Bag 65901, Auckland, 0754, New Zealand.
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