1. Long-term effect of thymectomy plus prednisone versus prednisone alone in patients with non-thymomatous myasthenia gravis: 2-year extension of the MGTX randomised trial
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Gil I Wolfe, Henry J Kaminski, Inmaculada B Aban, Greg Minisman, Hui-Chien Kuo, Alexander Marx, Philipp Ströbel, Claudio Mazia, Joel Oger, J Gabriel Cea, Jeannine M Heckmann, Amelia Evoli, Wilfred Nix, Emma Ciafaloni, Giovanni Antonini, Rawiphan Witoonpanich, John O King, Said R Beydoun, Colin H Chalk, Alexandru C Barboi, Anthony A Amato, Aziz I Shaibani, Bashar Katirji, Bryan R F Lecky, Camilla Buckley, Angela Vincent, Elza Dias-Tosta, Hiroaki Yoshikawa, Márcia Waddington-Cruz, Michael T Pulley, Michael H Rivner, Anna Kostera-Pruszczyk, Robert M Pascuzzi, Carlayne E Jackson, Jan J G M Verschuuren, Janice M Massey, John T Kissel, Lineu C Werneck, Michael Benatar, Richard J Barohn, Rup Tandan, Tahseen Mozaffar, Nicholas J Silvestri, Robin Conwit, Joshua R Sonett, Alfred Jaretzki, John Newsom-Davis, Gary R Cutter, Gary Cutter, Inmaculada Aban, Michelle Feese, Gil Wolfe, Henry Kaminski, Joshua Sonett, Valeria Saluto, Moises Rosenberg, Valeria Alvarez, Lisa Rey, John King, Helmut Butzkueven, John Goldblatt, John Carey, John Pollard, Stephen Reddel, Nicholas Handel, Brian McCaughan, Linda Pallot, Ricardo Novis, Carlos Boasquevisque, Rubens Morato-Fernandez, Manoel Ximenes, Lineu Werneck, Rosana Scola, Paulo Soltoski, Colin Chalk, Fraser Moore, David Mulder, Lisa Wadup, Michele Mezei, Kenneth Evans, Theresa Jiwa, Anne Schaffar, Chris White, Cory Toth, Gary Gelfand, Susan Wood, Elizabeth Pringle, Jocelyn Zwicker, Donna Maziak, Farid Shamji, Sudhir Sundaresan, Andrew Seely, Gabriel Cea, Renato Verduga, Alberto Aguayo, Sebastian Jander, Philipp Zickler, Michael Klein, Cleo-Aron Weis, Arthur Melms, Felix Bischof, Hermann Aebert, Gerhard Ziemer, Björn Thümler, Thomas Wilhem-Schwenkmezger, Eckhard Mayer, Berthold Schalke, Peter Pöschel, Gisela Hieber, Karsten Wiebe, Alessandro Clemenzi, Vanessa Ceschin, Erino Rendina, Federico Venuta, Stefania Morino, Elisabetta Bucci, Luca Durelli, Alessia Tavella, Marinella Clerico, Giulia Contessa, Piero Borasio, Serenella Servidei, Pierluigi Granone, Renato Mantegazza, Emilia Berta, Lorenzo Novellino, Luisa Spinelli, Masakatsu Motomura, Hidenori Matsuo, Takeshi Nagayasu, Masaharu Takamori, Makoto Oda, Isao Matsumoto, Yutaka Furukawa, Daisuke Noto, Yuko Motozaki, Kazuo Iwasa, Daisuke Yanase, Guillermo Garcia Ramos, Bernardo Cacho, Lorenzo de la Garza, Anne Kostera-Pruszczyk, Marta Lipowska, Hubert Kwiecinski, Anna Potulska-Chromik, Tadeusz Orlowski, Ana Silva, Marta Feijo, António Freitas, Jeannine Heckmann, Andrew Frost, Edward Pan, Lawrence Tucker, Johan Rossouw, Fiona Drummond, Isabel Illa, Jorge Diaz, Carlos Leon, Jiann-Horng Yeh, Hou-Chang Chiu, Yei-San Hsieh, Supoch Tunlayadechanont, Sukasom Attanavanich, Jan Verschuuren, Chiara Straathof, Maarten Titulaer, Michel Versteegh, Arda Pels, Yvonne Krum, M. Isabel Leite, David Hilton-Jones, Chandi Ratnatunga, Maria Farrugia, Richard Petty, James Overell, Alan Kirk, Andrew Gibson, Chris McDermott, David Hopkinson, Bryan Lecky, David Watling, Dot Marshall, Sam Saminaden, Deborah Davies, Charlotte Dougan, Siva Sathasivam, Richard Page, Jon Sussman, John Ealing, Peter Krysiak, Anthony Amato, Mohammad Salajegheh, Michael Jaklitsch, Kristen Roe, Tetsuo Ashizawa, Robert Glenn Smith, Joseph Zwischenberg, Penny Stanton, Alexandru Barboi, Safwan Jaradeh, William Tisol, Mario Gasparri, George Haasler, Mary Yellick, Cedric Dennis, Richard Barohn, Mamatha Pasnoor, Mazen Dimachkie, April McVey, Gary Gronseth, Arthur Dick, Jeffrey Kramer, Melissa Currence, Laura Herbelin, Jerry Belsh, George Li, John Langenfeld, Mary Ann Mertz, Taylor Harrison, Seth Force, Sharon Usher, Said Beydoun, Frank Lin, Steve DeMeester, Salem Akhter, Ali Malekniazi, Gina Avenido, Brian Crum, Margherita Milone, Stephen Cassivi, Janet Fisher, Chad Heatwole, Thomas Watson, James Hilbert, Alexis Smirnow, B. Jane Distad, Michael Weiss, Douglas Wood, Joanna Haug, Raina Ernstoff, Jingyang Cao, Gary Chmielewski, Robert Welsh, Robin Duris, Laurie Gutmann, Gauri Pawar, Geoffrey Marc Graeber, Patricia Altemus, Christopher Nance, Ludwig Gutmann, Carlayne Jackson, Patrick Grogan, John Calhoon, Pamela Kittrell, Deborah Myers, Ghazala Hayat, Keith Naunheim, Susan Eller, Eve Holzemer, Amer Alshekhlee, Jason Robke, Brenda Karlinchak, Jonathan Katz, Robert Miller, Ralph Roan, Dallas Forshew, John Kissel, Bakri Elsheikh, Patrick Ross, Sharon Chelnick, Richard Lewis, Agnes Acsadi, Frank Baciewicz, Stacey Masse, Janice Massey, Vern Juel, Mark Onaitis, James Lowe, Bernadette Lipscomb, Gaby Thai, Jeffrey Milliken, Veronica Martin, Ronnie Karayan, Suraj Muley, Gareth Parry, Sara Shumway, Shin Oh, Gwen Claussen, Liang Lu, Robert Cerfolio, Angela Young, Marla Morgan, Robert Pascuzzi, John Kincaid, Kenneth Kesler, Sandy Guingrich, Angi Michaels, Lawrence Phillips, Ted Burns, David Jones, Cindy Fischer, Michael Pulley, Alan Berger, Harry D'Agostino, Lisa Smith, Michael Rivner, Jerry Pruitt, Kevin Landolfo, Demetric Hillman, Aziz Shaibani, Angelo Sermas, Ross Ruel, Farah Ismail, Mark Sivak, Martin Goldstein, Jorge Camunas, Joan Bratton, Hill Panitch, Bruce Leavitt, Marilee Jones, Srikanth Muppidi, Steven Vernino, Sharon Nations, Dan Meyer, and Nina Gorham
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0301 basic medicine ,Male ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Edrophonium ,law.invention ,0302 clinical medicine ,Randomized controlled trial ,law ,Prednisone ,Longitudinal Studies ,MGTX Study Group ,Thymectomy ,3. Good health ,Settore MED/26 - NEUROLOGIA ,Editorial Commentary ,Treatment Outcome ,6.1 Pharmaceuticals ,Female ,medicine.drug ,Adult ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Clinical Trials and Supportive Activities ,Clinical Sciences ,Autoimmune Disease ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,Young Adult ,Rare Diseases ,Clinical Research ,Internal medicine ,Myasthenia Gravis ,medicine ,Humans ,Adverse effect ,myasthenia gravis ,mgtx extension study ,Intention-to-treat analysis ,Neurology & Neurosurgery ,business.industry ,Neurosciences ,Evaluation of treatments and therapeutic interventions ,medicine.disease ,Myasthenia gravis ,Clinical trial ,030104 developmental biology ,Neurology (clinical) ,business ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Summary Background The Thymectomy Trial in Non-Thymomatous Myasthenia Gravis Patients Receiving Prednisone (MGTX) showed that thymectomy combined with prednisone was superior to prednisone alone in improving clinical status as measured by the Quantitative Myasthenia Gravis (QMG) score in patients with generalised non-thymomatous myasthenia gravis at 3 years. We investigated the long-term effects of thymectomy up to 5 years on clinical status, medication requirements, and adverse events. Methods We did a rater-blinded 2-year extension study at 36 centres in 15 countries for all patients who completed the randomised controlled MGTX and were willing to participate. MGTX patients were aged 18 to 65 years at enrolment, had generalised non-thymomatous myasthenia gravis of less than 5 years' duration, had acetylcholine receptor antibody titres of 1·00 nmol/L or higher (or concentrations of 0·50–0·99 nmol/L if diagnosis was confirmed by positive edrophonium or abnormal repetitive nerve stimulation, or abnormal single fibre electromyography), had Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America Clinical Classification Class II–IV disease, and were on optimal anticholinesterase therapy with or without oral corticosteroids. In MGTX, patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to either thymectomy plus prednisone or prednisone alone. All patients in both groups received oral prednisone at doses titrated up to 100 mg on alternate days until they achieved minimal manifestation status. The primary endpoints of the extension phase were the time-weighted means of the QMG score and alternate-day prednisone dose from month 0 to month 60. Analyses were by intention to treat. The trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00294658. It is closed to new participants, with follow-up completed. Findings Of the 111 patients who completed the 3-year MGTX, 68 (61%) entered the extension study between Sept 1, 2009, and Aug 26, 2015 (33 in the prednisone alone group and 35 in the prednisone plus thymectomy group). 50 (74%) patients completed the 60-month assessment, 24 in the prednisone alone group and 26 in the prednisone plus thymectomy group. At 5 years, patients in the thymectomy plus prednisone group had significantly lower time-weighted mean QMG scores (5·47 [SD 3·87] vs 9·34 [5·08]; p=0·0007) and mean alternate-day prednisone doses (24 mg [SD 21] vs 48 mg [29]; p=0·0002) than did those in the prednisone alone group. 14 (42%) of 33 patients in the prednisone group, and 12 (34%) of 35 in the thymectomy plus prednisone group, had at least one adverse event by month 60. No treatment-related deaths were reported during the extension phase. Interpretation At 5 years, thymectomy plus prednisone continues to confer benefits in patients with generalised non-thymomatous myasthenia gravis compared with prednisone alone. Although caution is appropriate when generalising our findings because of the small sample size of our study, they nevertheless provide further support for the benefits of thymectomy in patients with generalised non-thymomatous myasthenia gravis. Funding National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
- Published
- 2019