The Duke Clinical Research Institute is involved in a project that has received $20 million to determine the effectiveness of various uterine fibroid treatments.
Researchers will follow patients receiving a wide range of fibroid treatments at those sites and track their courses of treatment. Fibroids, the most common tumors in women, impact over half of all women. Currently, fibroids cost the United States healthcare system more money than Type II diabetes, said Dr. Phyllis Leppert, professor emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
"We've never, ever in the country looked at the various ways to treat fibroids—how effective they are, what the outcomes are [and] what happens after treatment in terms of pregnancy," Leppert said.
The project will help patients make decisions about which treatments would be best for them given their individual characteristics, said Dr. Evan Myers, head of the study and chief of clinical and epidemiologic research.
Nine different clinical centers across the country are involved, a significant sample size and geographic distribution compared to previous studies.
Myers said he also wants to examine which treatments are most effective in the long run, since symptoms often recur with treatments other than hysterectomy.
Funding for this project will be provided by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Researchers on the project submitted an application that the two foundations sent out for the grant.
“It would be really great to say to a woman, ‘You have this kind of a fibroid, and we think the best treatment for you would be xyz,’” Leppert said. “Right now that’s not true. I know people who’ve had three myomectomies [surgeries to remove fibroids] and the fibroids recur, and that’s kind of a tragedy.”
The emphasis on patient feedback distinguishes this study from others, said Sateria Venable, the patient representative for the study registry’s Steering Committee.
“Often, research efforts are focused on the results or outcomes only,” Venable said. “Treatment of any health concern should be a collaboration between the patient and physician, and so I would hope [this study] encourages more dialogue.”
Leppert said she hopes the findings from this study will highlight gaps in knowledge and further areas of research.
“There’s still a lot of basic research that has to be done…to understand these tumors and develop even more therapies than we have today,” Leppert said.
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