More good news about NorUrso…calling it a possible cure!!!
From the article:
“There were significant improvements in liver parameters for all tested dosages,” explains Trauner. “That is a very promising result. It means that we can now start a Phase III study to investigate the long-term effects on disease progression.”
My Dr has said to me for several years that Urso has been shown in studies to improve liver panel numbers, but this has not been correlated with improved outcomes in any studies. Does this match what others have been told?
While we have evidence that improvements of ALP to within 1.5 x normal improve outcome, we don’t have any evidence that improvements in ALP outside of this range improve outcome. This also translates to urso - those with ALP that improve on urso from say 350 to 250 typically don’t fare better than those who remain at a higher ALP, whereas those with ALP that improve from say 250 to 150 typically fare better than those that remain at a higher number. The problem is that only about 10% of people with PSC fit into this category where their ALP is brought to near normal on urso that is otherwise higher.
Per the above reference trial, norurso seems to improve ALP to near normal for at least twice as many PSCers compared to urso. Here are the % of people with ALP <1.5 normal for each group:
placebo: 12.5
500mg: 12.8
1000mg: 41.5 (had lowest starting ALP of all groups)
1500mg: 30.8
And here is the full text for anyone interested: http://www.journal-of-hepatology.eu/article/S0168-8278(17)32045-7/fulltext
Hm. My Dr is more categorical than that. Just “no evidence of improved outcomes” without qualifications. But he may be using shorthand, since I’m unable to take Urso in any case.