Significantly fewer women receiving elagolix plus add-back hormone tx versus placebo had heavy bleeding
THURSDAY, Jan. 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) — For women with uterine fibroids, elagolix with add-back hormonal therapy is associated with a reduction in heavy menstrual bleeding compared with placebo, according to a study published in the Jan. 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
William D. Schlaff, M.D., from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and colleagues conducted two randomized, placebo-controlled phase 3 trials (Elaris Uterine Fibroids 1 and 2 [UF-1 and UF-2]) to assess the efficacy and safety of elagolix twice daily with hormonal add-back therapy to replace reduced levels of endogenous hormones. Overall, 412 women in UF-1 and 378 in UF-2 were randomly assigned in a 2:1:1 ratio to receive elagolix with add-back therapy, elagolix alone, or placebo. The primary end point was menstrual blood loss <80 mL in the final month of treatment and ≥50 percent reduction in menstrual blood loss from baseline to the final month.
The researchers found that in UF-1 and UF-2, the criteria for the primary end point were met by 68.5 percent of 206 and 76.5 percent of 189 women, respectively, who received elagolix plus add-back therapy, compared with 8.7 percent of 102 and 10 percent of 94 women, respectively, who received placebo. The primary end point was met by 84.1 percent of 104 women and 77 percent of 95 women in UF-1 and UF-2, respectively, who received elagolix alone. With add-back therapy, hypoestrogenic effects of elagolix were attenuated.
“In both trials reported here, the risk of heavy menstrual bleeding among premenopausal women with uterine fibroids was significantly lower among women who received elagolix,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie, which manufactures elagolix and funded the study.
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