A Clinical Research Study Designed To Determine If Treatment of Hepatitis C With Milk Thistle is More Effective Than No Treatment In Patients Infected With Both HIV And Hepatitis C

Overview

There is some information available that indicates that Milk Thistle is an effective treatment for liver disease. This study will compare Milk Thistle with a placebo, (a medicine that looks just like Milk Thistle but does not contain any Milk Thistle) to see if people with both Hepatitis C and HIV infections show improvement or cure of Hepatitis C. The study will last one year.

Patients with many different diseases are requesting information from health care providers, (physicians and nurses) about alternative therapies. The paucity of evidence based information requires that rigidly structured clinical trials comparing dietary supplements, herbal products and other alternative modalities with either placebo or standard of care be conducted in a timely fashion. There is a body of evidence that Silymarin is both well tolerated and efficacious for the treatment of Hepatitis C. In patients co-infected with HIV \& HCV, treatment choices are sometimes limited by intolerable toxicities of standard therapies for the treatment of HCV when combined with antiretroviral therapy for treatment of HIV. This study will seek to determine if Silymarin, an herbal product that is widely used, will be well tolerated and effective in slowing progression of liver damage in patients co-infected with HIV \& HCV. The Informed Consent Document contains all the required elements of informed consent as required by 21CFR50. The consent clearly states that this is research, participation is voluntary and that treatment with Silymarin may not be effective. Every effort has been made to outline whatever is known about any side effects. There are very few. All study participants are followed closely, are given their test results which are also shared with primary care providers. The investigators have convened a Data and Safety Monitoring Board and the Mount Sinai IRB has approved and will monitor the study.