Study to Compare the Efficacy of Mycophenolate Mofetil in Systemic Sclerosis Related Early Interstitial Lung Disease

Overview

Systemic sclerosis is a multisystem disease and can involve the lungs in the form of ILD. Lung involvement is the most common cause of death in these patients. The present study is performed to study the efficacy of oral mycophenolate mofetil in treating early and mild ILD in patients of SSc. The efficacy and side effects of mycophenolate mofetil will be compared with that of oral placebo.

Lung involvement is the leading cause of death among patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Treatment with immunosuppression drugs helps in retarding the progression of interstitial lung disease (ILD) and improves the morbidity and mortality among these patients. Presently, cyclophosphamide has been shown to be useful in stabilizing the lung functions among patients of systemic sclerosis with ILD. But use of cyclophosphamide is also associated with many adverse effects including infections, cytopenias, gonadal dysfunction and malignancies. Use of oral mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) in SSc-ILD in recent studies has been shown to be effective in retarding progression of ILD among these patients with a better side effect profile compared to cyclophosphamide. Contemporary expert opinion dictates that the treatment for SSc-ILD needs to be individualized. Generally, intense immunosuppression is required in patients with FVC \<70% of the predicted. In patients with FVC \>70% of the predicted, the need for high dose immunosuppression is not clear and varies from center-to-center. The present study is designed to determine the efficacy of oral MMF in patients with SSc related early ILD. The subjects in this study will be given either oral MMF or placebo and will be monitored for their response and adverse events. Informed consent will be taken from the subjects before including in the study.