A trial looking at bezafibrate and medroxyprogesterone for some types of leukaemia and lymphoma

A total of 18 people joined this trial. This is fewer than the research team were hoping for. 

There were:

• 16 people with either acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) or high risk  myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)
• 1 person with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL)
• 1 person with B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)

The team found that bezafibrate caused some serious side effects. Most people had to have a break from treatment or stop taking it. The people taking part started taking quite a low dose to begin with. But even this caused side effects. They weren’t able to take the planned higher dose.

These side effects included:

• an increase in a protein called creatinine kinase, caused by the breakdown of muscle tissue
• changes in blood tests that show how well the kidneys are working  
• muscles aches (myalgia)

Medroxyprogesterone acetate didn’t cause too many side effects. Most people were able to take it as planned. 

The team looked at how well the treatment worked. They found that one person’s blood tests had improved a little. But there had been no change for most people.

Conclusion
The team concluded that the combination of bezafibrate and medroxyprogesterone acetate was not a useful treatment for people with AML or high risk MDS. 

They weren’t able to draw any conclusions for people with CLL or B cell NHL. This is because there was only one person with each cancer in the trial.

Sometimes trials show treatments aren’t useful for a particular type or stage of cancer. But these trials still add to our knowledge and understanding of cancer and how to treat it.

More detailed information
There is more information about this research in the reference below. 

Please note, the information we link to here is not in plain English. It has been written for healthcare professionals and researchers.

Single arm phase II trial assessing the safety, compliance with and activity of Bezafibrate and medroxyProgesterone acetate (BaP) therapy against myeloid and lymphoid cancers 
J Murray and others
Contemporary Clinical Trials Communication, 2019 Jun. Issue 14, article 100361.

Where this information comes from    
We have based this summary on the information in the article above. This has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed ) and published in a medical journal. We have not analysed the data ourselves. As far as we are aware, the link we list above is active and the article is free and available to view.