
Originally Posted by
Wise Young
Tetracyclone,
We are still working on the phase 3 design. At the present, in CN103 (the ChinaSCINet trial), we are planning to transplant umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells (UCBMC) into 400 subjects and randomize two groups of subjects with ASIA Impairment Scale (AIS) A, B, or C chronic spinal cord injury to a 6 week course of placebo or lithium. The latter will be "blinded" or "masked" so that neither the doctors nor patients know whether the patient is getting placebo of lithium.
The problem, as you point out, is how to deal with and assess the role of rehabilitation. We encourage every participating center to provide intensive locomotor training. That is not possible, however. So, we are planning to do three things to ascertain whether the walking training is important:
1. In the trials, we will monitor intensity of locomotor training with a daily diary by the patient (emailed daily by the patient to the testing center) and also a pedometer (or other device to measure hip movement).
2. In the upcoming U.S. phase 2 trial (US102 in Austin), we are planning to randomize patients to standard rehabilitation and a more intensive walking program after treatment.
3. In the upcoming ChinaSCINet Phase 3 trial (CN103), we will randomize subjects to intensive or standard locomotor rehabilitation. To do the latter, the subjects will go to Kunming.
We are hoping to get US102 started in Austin (TX) early in 2012, to assess how feasible it would be to do 6 hours a day for 5 days a week training.
Wise.